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BY 



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ALBERT BUSHNELL HART, Ph.D. 

OF HARVARD UNIVERSITY 

Author of'''' Introduction to the Study of Federal Government^'' 

*'*' Practical Essays on American Government^'' '''Guide 

to the Study of American History^'' etc. 







1Rew l?orft 

LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO. 

AND LONDON 
1895 




LB/025 



Copyright, 1895, by 
LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO. 



preface^ 



The six essays which make up this volume 
have been prepared at various times and deal 
with a variety of subjects. Nevertheless there 
is between them a thread of connection and re- 
lation. They all are based upon two funda- 
mental ideas: that education is substantially 
one from beginning to end, so that the same or 
similar methods may be applied throughout; 
and that teachers of every grade and subject 
have a common interest and may learn from 
each other. They are the outcome of a desire 
to make some small contribution to the great 
common fund of experience. 

That so many of these essays deal with the 
problems of the primary and secondary schools 
needs no apology. Every American must feel 
an interest in the systems which reach the great- 
est number of pupils, and lay the foundations 
for later study. A short service in the Cam- 
bridge School Committee has taught some- 
thing of the aims and practical difficulties of 
primary and secondary education. 

By the courtesy of the editors of the Acad- 
(v) 



VI Ipreface* 



emy (Syracuse), Atlantic^ Chautauquan, Educa- 
tional Review J and School Review^ articles a.re 
here reprinted which first appeared in those 
journals ; but the opportunity of revision has 
not been neglected, and, so far as possible, 
each essay has been brought down to date. 

Albert Bushnell Hart. 



Cambridge, Mass., January 15, 1895. 



Znblc of Contents* 



PAGE. 

I. Has the Teacher a Profession? i 

School Review, January, 1893. 

II. Reform in the Grammar Schools 22 

Educational Review, October, 1892. 

III. University Participation — a Substitute for 

University Extension 49 

Educational Review, June, 1893. 

IV. How to Study History 75 

Chautauquan, October, 1893. 

V. How to Teach History in Secondary Schools. 91 
Academy (Syracuse), September, October, 1887. 

VI. The Status of Athletics in American Col- 
leges 122 

Atlantic Monthly, July, 1890. 

INDEX 147 



(vii) 



I. 

Ibas tbe xreacber a profession? 



Nearly fifty years ago an eminent professor 
in New England, then occupying a chair of 
History, got into a controversy over a depre- 
ciatory article which he had written about Kos- 
suth, the popular hero of the day ; though his 
criticism was probably just, the feeling aroused 
was so strong that it was deemed expedient to 
transfer him to the chair of " Natural Religion 
and Moral Philosophy." A squib expressed the 
popular disapproval as follows : " Professor B. 
was made a Professor of History because he 
did not know history ; but is now a Professor 
of Morals because he cannot tell the truth." 

The anecdote illustrates the lack of confi- 
dence of Americans in professional teachers; 
but the same feeling exists toward many other 
professions. For instance, when it became nec- 
essary to erect a capitol for the nation in 1800 
it was designed, says Henry Adams, '' by Dr. 
William Thornton, an English physician, who 
in the course of two weeks' study at the Phila- 

(I) 



tibe zreacber'6 iprofessfon* 



delphia Library gained enough knowledge of 
architecture to draw an exterior elevation. But 
when Thornton was forced to look for some 
one to help him over his difficulty, Jefferson 
could find no competent native American, and 
sent for Latrobe. Jefferson considered himself 
a better architect than either of them, and had 
he been a professor of materia medica at Co- 
lumbia College, the public would have accepted 
his claim as reasonable." Wherever we turn 
we find the same notion, that even in techni- 
cal matters one man is as good as another; 
house-painters design buildings, surveyors build 
bridges, and war correspondents write history. 
Even when we touch the most delicate and com- 
plicated of all human devices, the machinery of 
government, we find deeply embedded in the 
popular mind the principle of rotation in office ; 
that is, Americans hold not only the belief that 
the inexperienced man is as good as the expert, 
but also the conviction that he is a great deal 
better. 

For this state of things there are two principal 
causes. In the development of a new country 
the settlers have had to be masters of many 
trades; and the man who could clear land, 
break oxen, build a wagon, shoe a horse, repair 
a roof, keep a tavern, and settle a dispute, not 
unnaturally felt that he could also invent cotton 
machinery, make laws, and teach school. Even 



2)i0tru6t of Bjperts, 



the division and subdivision of labor has not as 
yet been effectual in breaking up this idea that 
any man can do anything. The other cause is 
one which tends rather to grow than to dimin- 
ish ; it is hard for Americans to understand that 
it is possible for men to be politically equal 
while intellectually unequal. The " practical 
man " considers himself an unteachable master 
in his own field, and at the same time a better 
judge of professional matters than the expert 
who has spent his life in acquiring technical 
knowledge. On the other hand, the " practical 
man " has the utmost contempt for any applica- 
tion to his pursuits of those generalities found- 
ed on long experience which he calls " theory." 
A few years ago, in the enlightened city of Bos- 
ton, the trustees of the Public Library applied 
their business common-sense to the construc- 
tion of a new building, and declined to consult 
any experienced librarian as to the suitability 
of their plans. These practical men have pro- 
duced a magnificent monument, with insuffi- 
cient windows, and were able to come within 
almost a million dollars of their own estimate. 

That the mass of Americans do not appre- 
ciate expert knowledge is shown in part by the 
common use of the word "technical " as nearly 
synonymous with impracticable ; and still more 
by the status of the recognized " learned pro- 
fessions." The ministry is the oldest of them, 



Zbc ZcachcfB ftotcseion. 



and long the most respected ; yet laymen con- 
sider their knowledge of biblical history and 
philology so adequate that they try for heresy 
learned scholars who disagree with them. The 
profession of law was looked on with suspicion 
and dislike in colonial times, and owes its pres- 
ent standing chiefly to its great influence over 
legislation, and to the selection of judges from 
its ranks. No established profession meets with 
less real consideration than the medical ; a few 
years ago, in the populous city of Cleveland, the 
physician with the largest practice was an ig- 
norant German, who never could be induced 
to show any diploma, and who diagnosed dis- 
eases by examining the palms of his patients' 
hands. The regular officers of the army and 
navy were suspected of " book-learning " at the 
beginning of the Civil War, and it was only the 
absolute necessity of the case which allowed 
them to come forward and vindicate their status 
as superior to the untrained volunteers. Along 
with them, engineers and scientific men are 
somewhat grudgingly admitted to possess a 
distinct professional status. 

What is the teacher's place ? How far does 
the public recognize him as one entitled to con- 
fidence and consultation, because learned in a 
calling of great benefit to the community ? 
Three illustrations drawn from personal experi- 
ence may suffice to show how the teachers are 



Xow Estimate ot Uearnfng, 5 

regarded, though by far the largest body of 
educated men and women in the country. A 
person, a foreigner, who had for some months 
rendered practical services in the writer's 
kitchen, one day asked the lady of the house 
whether her husband " had any real profes- 
sion." The wife of another member of the 
teaching staff in Cambridge, one day remarked 
that " she never could see what President Eliot 
could find to do." A young friend, who had 
been a " professor " in an immature college 
in the Southwest, recently gave out that he 
thought of "going into the education busi- 
ness." It appeared that his plan was to start a 
school, and then personally to " drum " whole 
cities for patrons — or, perhaps one might say, 
for " customers." 

What is the reason of this attitude toward 
knowledge ? Savages despise experts because 
they have no conception of any knowledge or 
power except what they themselves possess ; so 
the barbarian Gaul plucked the Roman senator 
by the beard, because to him he was only a weak 
old man. The Romans themselves cared little 
for learning, because they could not see the 
value of knowledge which was not directly in- 
tended to advance the material power and 
wealth of the nation. Americans are rather 
Romans than barbarians ; we value some 
kinds of experts ; we allowed forty acres at the 



XLhc XLctichct*6 ^totcssion. 



Columbian Exposition for the display of the 
cattle-breeders' art — and two acres for a dis- 
play of education. 

Perhaps, after all, these are extreme illustra- 
tions of the relative proportions of material and 
intellectual interests. Perhaps we may find 
the status of teachers more important than we 
imagine. Let us proceed to consider three 
points in regard to it : First, how far teachers 
practise a profession ; second, how far they are 
recognized as experts ; and, third, what may be 
done to improve the profession. 

Among the principal marks of a profes- 
sion are : that it should be a permanent call- 
ing taken up as a life-work ; that it should 
require special and intellectual training ; and 
that there should be among its members a feel- 
ing of common interest and some organization. 
When we attempt to apply these criteria to the 
teachers there is certainly some doubt whether 
we form a profession or no. The teacher's call- 
ing is well known to be less permanent than 
that of others. For more than a century teach- 
ing has been considered in this country, what 
it could hardly be in any other land, a make- 
shift for young men who expect to enter law 
or medicine. Undoubtedly this system of com- 
bining self -education with the education of 
others has made it possible for many young 
men to climb the difficult lower stairs of recog- 



IpecuUarftfes of tbe Callfng, 



nized professions. Two presidents of the Unit- 
ed States — John Adams and James A. Garfield 
— began their career in this fashion. The con- 
ditions are now changing. The colleges used 
to have a system of vacations which permitted 
students to teach a part of every year. Per- 
haps that was as good a way of earning money 
as waiting at summer hotels or acting as guide 
at a World's Fair ; but the colleges no longer 
suffer the interruption. More and more young 
men enter upon teaching with the expectation 
that they will follow it steadily ; and so far 
forth the profession gains ground. On the 
other hand, there are in America large bodies 
of women teachers ; and to them no profession 
has the same permanence as to a man ; the "epi- 
demic of matrimony " may make inroads on the 
teaching force in every grade. A few months 
ago the President of the oldest and one of the 
best women's colleges in America was in a com- 
ical state of mingled wrath and amusement be- 
cause one of his professors had resigned her 
place, without any previous notice, and only a 
few days before the beginning of the college 
year, in order to be married. As the sage Bil- 
lings observed, " Calico of all kinds is the child 
of circumstances." 

When we come to technical training the 
teachers stand below other professions. Only 
very recently have there been opportunities in 



S tTbe ^eacber'6 iprofeesfon* 

America for a course corresponding to that of 
the law, medical, or theological student, or of 
the West Point cadet. We must not leave out 
of account the system of normal schools which 
has done so much to disabuse Americans of the 
idea that any fairly intelligent person is suit- 
able as a teacher. It seems, however, that 
those schools at present occupy the same posi- 
tion as the old medical schools, which gave 
diplomas after attendance on two courses of 
lectures. The normal schools have tried to do 
two things at once, and have done neither of 
them with complete success ; they find it neces- 
sary to offer a general course because of the 
imperfect preliminary education of many stu- 
dents who come to them ; and at the same time 
they have tried to give a technical training : the 
general course has been on too narrow a basis, 
and the practical part has been taught too 
much by lecture and demonstration, and too 
little by actual practice. Nor do the college 
courses in pedagogy entirely fill the require- 
ment of higher professional training ; they can 
test the general acquirements of students ; they 
can point out the development of the human 
mind and suggest the best ways of participat- 
ing in that development ; they can give a wide 
outlook over previous experiments in educa- 
tion ; their great danger is of running into what 
the Germans call " Methodologie." Practical 



Iprofe05fonal ZvMniWQ. 



training in teaching seems like that in anoth- 
er science which makes the colleges known 
throughout the Union — the science of football. 
The good teacher needs strength and quickness 
of mind ; he needs an acquaintance with the 
rules of his road ; above all he needs personal 
contact with the problems of his calling. It is 
impossible to educate a teacher without asso 
ciating him in some way with those who are to 
be taught, just as it is impossible to make a 
good football eleven by studying the rules of 
the game and looking on from the edge of the 
crowd of spectators. A normal school or a col- 
lege course without actual classes of children 
is like football practice with a dummy in a 
gymnasium. 

The third element of professional training, 
permanent organization and association, has 
made great advances in the last few years. 
Teachers of similar grades have gathered in 
clubs and meetings ; those of various grades 
have met in joint conferences and associations ; 
the whole body of teachers, through their or- 
ganization in the National Educational Associa- 
tion, have sought to study and to solve their 
common problems. 

Such, then, seems to be the opinion which we 
teachers hold of our calling ; it is not always 
permanent ; we are not always well trained ; 
but we have a strong and growing feeling of 



10 ^be treacbec*6 iDrofesslom 

esprit de corps. What does the community 
think of us? In one respect at least teachers 
are looked up to as professional experts ; they 
are generally considered men of learning. 
There is a much greater respect throughout 
the country for educated men than they them- 
selves observe. Not long ago a young lawyer 
in New York City was designated as an agent 
of a municipal reform association at one of the 
polling-places in the lower part of the city. On 
appearing he found his rivals disposed to hustle 
and maltreat him ; presently '' Paddy Divver," 
the renowned police justice, appeared as chief- 
tain of the opposite host ; on learning who the 
young stranger was, and finding that he was 
an educated man — and withal an agreeable fel- 
low — Paddy magnanimously took him under 
his wing ; issued strict orders that he should 
not be molested ; gave him an excellent Tam- 
many lunch; and parted with an assurance of 
his personal friendship. Yet he had nothing to 
gain by his hospitality except the good-will of 
the man whose advantages he respected. From 
the district school where "teacher says so" 
is a decisive argument in domestic affairs, to 
the gentleman who has discovered an infallible 
means of predicting the weather and asks the 
Board of Overseers of Harvard College to test 
it and certify to his fame, there is a disposition 
to look upon educators as more learned than 



1Rc0pect tor tTeacbcra. n 

other professional men. This privilege, how- 
ever, applies only to literary subjects, treated 
in a general manner ; we are allowed to state 
the height of the Washington Monument; but 
to apply the character of Washington as a cri- 
terion for modern statesmen is a " descent into 
politics." 

What we desire is not that people should 
look upon us as encyclopaedias of learning, but 
that they should ask and take our advice upon 
strictly professional matters, such as school or- 
ganization, courses of study, and school meth- 
ods. The real difficulty here is the close 
connection between the public schools and the 
State. The teachers are not considered mem- 
bers of an independent profession, asserting 
their own standards, but as employees of the 
Government ; they are not retained like lawyers, 
but hired like letter-carriers. Furthermore, 
since education is a public matter, it is often 
considered the gift of the State, to be divided 
per capita among the children in such a manner 
that the bright and dull shall get the same 
amount, in the same time, under the same sys- 
tem. This pernicious notion goes very deep. 
Congress looks upon the scientific men in the 
Smithsonian and instructors in government 
schools as persons to take orders and not to 
make suggestions. Teachers throughout the 
country have little influence over the organiza- 



12 Zhc treacber'6 iI>rote66fon. 

tion of their own schools, and still less over the 
selection of their own associates. 

On this point our position is more difficult 
than that of other professions ; lawyers have a 
bar examination, which they themselves admin- 
ister ; physicians, in the older States, have a high 
professional standard of education, and will 
eventually insist upon a State examination for 
neophytes. We are betrayed by our own higher 
institutions ; one may count almost on one hand 
the colleges, and even universities, in which 
the faculties are the main-spring of the system. 
In Cornell, Columbia, Yale, and Harvard the 
faculty does decide on its own methods ; and at 
Yale and Cornell on its own members. The 
success of those great universities is in part due 
to the independence of their teachers. Even 
the Overseers of Harvard University, though 
enlightened and public-spirited men, chosen by 
the suffrage of the graduates, have very little 
control over that university. Had they more 
power, it is perhaps doubtful whether they 
would make the institution better; but they cer- 
tainly would make it different. A few of the 
endowed schools have a faculty with power ; 
but in public schools there is almost always an 
administrative system separate from the teach- 
ers. If the principal of the grammar-school 
never asks the opinion of his teachers; if the 
head -master of a high -school never takes 



tieacbcre not ConeulteO* ^3 



counsel with his subordinates, why should 
principals and masters expect to be consulted 
by school boards? Our idea of school organ- 
ization is paternal; it suggests the Presbyte- 
rian's elaborate description of his own church 
government : " And thus you see," said he, 
" our General Assembly, our Synods, our Pres- 
byteries form a system of wheels, working with- 
in wheels." ''Yes," says a good Methodist 
brother, " and all these wheels to grind the peo- 
ple with." 

It is true that the taxpayers raise the money, 
and that it is necessary for the public interest 
that they should have a voice in its expen- 
diture ; it is true that we need the criticism of 
the intelligent laymen. But our schools, and 
particularly the public schools, would be much 
better administered if the Boards of Education 
were content with supervising the Superin- 
tendent, and would give the teachers more 
voice in their own system ; if Superintendents 
were content with superintending methods and 
would leave details to the masters ; and if the 
masters would call their teachers into consul- 
tation. 

In any case it is reasonable to ask that the 
opinions of the teachers may have weight in 
the details of the schools, and especially in the 
selection of studies. Here, if anywhere, ex- 
perience and observation ought to tell, and 



14 tTbe ^eacber'0 iprotessfom 

here we teachers are in part responsible for the 
defects of the present system. To be sure 
many of us are caught in the meshes of a sys- 
tem which we did not make, and against which 
we struggle. Nevertheless, teachers have been 
slow to show the evidence of life usual in other 
professions — eagerness on the part of the mem- 
bers to adopt improved methods and to extend 
them. The author of a legal treatise on a new 
system at once acquires reputation in the pro- 
fession ; the leading physician is usually the 
man who is most ready to test new discoveries ; 
the more conservative profession of the minis- 
try blossoms out with suggestions of institu- 
tional churches and other novel devices for 
extending its work. Teachers are too apt to 
look upon another teacher who points out flaws 
as a spy in the camp. We ought to be con- 
stantly suggesting improvements in our own 
work, and we ought to accept outside criticisms 
as an evidence of public interest Woe to the 
schools in which teachers or administrators 
consider any part of the system " perfect! " 

Nor is content with imperfection the only 
danger of the schools ; a fixed and artificial 
system of education not only benumbs the 
teachers, it also creates a distrust in the minds 
of the public. Some very excellent and sin- 
cere educators have worked out elaborate 
theories in which the schools are fitted to- 



irmpro\?ement Slow, 15 

gether like the trusses of a bridge ; the pri- 
mary schools, they tell us, are to teach a knowl- 
edge of things ; the grammar-schools a knowl- 
edge of relations ; the high-schools, applications 
of knowledge ; and the work in each grade is 
to be arranged accordingly. Such wire-drawn 
formalism brings the school into discredit. 
The human mind develops on all sides at once; 
astronomy may be a suitable study for kinder- 
gartens, and word-building a useful exercise in 
graduate schools. 

The most technical part of the teacher's 
work is his method of teaching ; here again 
the profession suffers from itself. The general 
public feels that we use a lot of professional 
cant ; that certain stock phrases are used to 
cover a plentiful lack of wit. The spirit of a 
profession may fairly be gauged by its period- 
icals ; the lawyers, the doctors, the ministers 
discuss the technicalities of their professions in 
sober, dignified, and literary fashion. It must 
be confessed that many of the educational 
periodicals suggest inferior education ; they 
abound in small gossip, in laudatory book no- 
tices, in free-and-easy conversational editorials. 
It would be unfair to hold the publishers 
wholly responsible for this sort of journals, be- 
cause they adapt their wares to the markets. 
It must be the teachers who subscribe for, and 
support, what might not inappropriately be 



1 6 XTbe treacber^s iprofessfoti, 

called the " trade journals of education/' One 
of our present encouragements is the estab- 
lishment in the United States of several educa- 
tional periodicals of the highest order, suitable 
exchanges for the best journals of other coun- 
tries. 

In what way may the professional status of 
the teacher be improved ? That it is rising is 
shown in many ways, especially in the better 
provision for thorough training. The Normal 
Schools are improving; a scientific study of 
pedagogy is slowl}^ gaining recognition as a 
part of university instruction ; and now a third 
method is starting up, of which a special advan- 
tage is that it may be applied to teachers who 
have already begun their work. This is the 
system of training courses established for teach- 
ers by colleges and technical schools, and de- 
scribed in the essay in this volume, on " Uni- 
versity Participation." The probable effect in 
bringing about a feeling of harmony and mutual 
interest between the colleges and schools is too 
evident to require discussion. 

In some one of the three ways, by normal 
schools, courses in pedagogy, or practical 
training courses, greater professional advan- 
tages are obtainable ; more than that, they are 
obtained. The planting of Johns Hopkins Uni- 
versity, twenty years ago, has given a different 
trend to the preparation of teachers, especially 



mcm6 of irmprovemcnt. ^7 



for the more advanced institutions. There is 
hardly a good college in the United States at 
present which will give any man a permanent 
appointment unless he has had special training 
in American or foreign universities, after fin- 
ishing his college course. The principle is ex- 
tending into secondary schools; and the time 
is not far different when a mastership in any 
good secondary school in New England can be 
had only by a person specially fitted for the 
work which he proposes to do. The influence 
is likely to spread still further, and we shall 
surely have a body of highly educated and 
trained teachers below the high - school. At 
this moment there are in the Cambridge gram- 
mar-schools several women who hold the de- 
gree of A.B. from a good college; and the 
number of such thoroughly educated teachers 
is certain to increase. 

Our standing before the community may 
also be much improved by a less self-satisfied 
tone. We are engaged in an excellent and 
honorable calling; we have chosen it because 
we think it for us the best and the most useful ; 
but teachers are entirely too apt to congratu- 
late each other on the grandeur of their oppor- 
tunities and the greatness of their sacrifices. 
We are not highly paid in comparison with 
our friends and class-mates who began the race 
with us ; we are subject to vexatious uncer- 



2 



1 8 zhc t^eacbcr'B iprofeeefoh, 

tainties as to tenure and promotion. But we 
have three months' vacation in the year ; we 
have fixed salaries instead of fees or donation 
parties ; and we are able to arrange much of 
our own time. We look, and are, a contented 
body of men and women; let us admit our 
content. 

Another way to improve our position is to 
recognize the problem of education which lies 
before us. An esteemed correspondent from 
another State recently wrote : " I think we have 
touched the bottom of inequality and are now 
well on our way toward another grand equality. 
. . . One object of free public education 
should be to make men equal and not unequal." 
That proposition is in the wrong spirit. It is 
no part of our profession to reorganize the uni- 
verse. We are put here, like the physicians, to 
take people as we find them, and to make the 
best that we can out of every one. A good 
practitioner treats a weak and sickly child as 
one requiring special attention ; he thinks he is 
doing well if he brings him to the point where, 
by taking care of himself, he may thenceforth 
live, however simply and quietly. The stronger 
and more vigorous boy may be a subject for 
the sharper discipline of rough and hearty 
boyish sports. But if we wish to produce a 
transcendent character such as the stroke oar 
of a victorious crew, we must catch him early 



JDSaualf^atfon an^ %iccn6im. 19 

and train him hard. There is no other profes- 
sion that does not seek out the best young minds 
and give them the best opportunities that the 
country affords. We shall never be a profes- 
sion if we do not take each child as we find 
him, and give him all the training that his 
mental powers allow, up to the point reached 
by our schools. 

The status of teachers would be much im- 
proved if we could adopt the foreign system of 
a rigorous state examination, which could not 
be passed without special training, and without 
which no person could be appointed as teacher 
in any advanced school. Such a result is very 
difficult to accomplish : the bar has gained it ; 
the medical men may reach it ; the teachers, at 
least in some States, might bring it about if 
they themselves would clamor for it. Our 
system of schools conducted exclusively by 
local boards, with little suggestion and no con- 
trol from the State, has great advantages; it 
promotes healthy rivalries, allows for peculiar 
circumstances and cultivates lively public inter- 
est. None of these advantages would be lost 
by a system of State examinations ; the local 
boards and committee would still draw the 
plans and put up the structure of education, 
but they would be obliged to build with well- 
shaped materials. 

The members of the profession are already 



20 trbe XLcachcfe UMofessfon. 

doing all that can be expected in the way of 
organization and association ; the knowledge 
of improved methods spreads rapidly through 
teachers' associations, and through the better 
journals, from town to town and from State to 
State. What is now needed is to apply the 
principle of association so as to bring nearer 
together the teachers who are already nearest 
together; the teachers in one building, or in 
one city. This does not mean simply the out- 
ward contact of teachers* meetings, but the 
establishment of some kind of joint and several 
responsibility, some faculty system. The dif- 
ficulties in the way of such a system are very 
serious. The adoption of departmental instruc- 
tion in grammar-schools, though, perhaps, it 
would bring about new difficulties, would cer- 
tainly help out this reform ; but the real trouble 
is not so much a lack of organization as of en- 
lightened public sentiment. Perhaps the prob- 
lem may be solved by establishing in every city 
or county system of schools a Teachers' Coun- 
cil, chosen by the teachers themselves, and 
consulted by school boards on questions of or- 
ganization and methods. 

At present we are in the hands of that near- 
sighted giant, the Public ; he moves us about 
like chessmen on a board ; he is responsible 
for most of the evils which we have discussed. 
We feel toward him as the White Queen felt 



B30Odatfoti. 21 



when she was suddenly transported to the 
mantel-piece, and with her we cry out to our 
colleagues : '^ Mind the volcano ! " But he is 
a good-natured and well-meaning giant, sus- 
ceptible to good advice ; he likes to see his 
creatures doing something, and is willing that 
they should improve. Good Public, give us 
elbow-room ! Do not insist on uniformity, the 
great bane of American education ! Do not 
make a solar system of our schools, with super- 
intendents as force -giving suns, masters as 
light -reflecting planets, and teachers as auto- 
matic satellites or asteroids ! Give us an oppor- 
tunity to think, to suggest and to criticise, Avith- 
out our heads rolling off ! We will repay you 
by preparing for our profession, practising it 
modestly, and constantly raising our own stand- 
ards of efficiency. You give us your children 
to educate ; give us more freedom, so as to edu- 
cate them well ! 



II. 

IRetotm in tbe ©rammar^Scbools^ 



Unthinking persons who look upon educa- 
tion in the United States perhaps suppose that, 
if the profession of teaching be unlike other pro- 
fessions, if it be not possible to set certain stand- 
ards, or to maintain a definite professional spirit 
by the body of teachers, at least the methods 
of teaching and the choice of subjects are in gen- 
eral determined by the teachers. A brief ex- 
perience in school administration has convinced 
the writer that this is a mistaken view. 

Teachers have little influence in either of the 
two parts of the educational machinery — that 
which relates to the selection of teachers, or 
that which controls the subject-matter of educa- 
tion, such as the choice of studies and of text- 
books, the preparation of courses of study, and 
the fixing of tests of proficiency. Except in a 
very few professional schools, particularly those 
of medicine, teachers usually have no voice in 
the selection of their fellows ; the standards for 
admission into the profession are set and ad- 

(22) 



Zhc ipowers of tTeacbere. 23 

ministered by persons who have often never ' 
been teachers, and sometimes know very little 
of the art. The school boards and the trus- 
tees of secondary schools and colleges hold the 
keys to the gates which open to the pedagogue's 
career. It might be supposed that at least in 
the technical matters of curriculum and division 
of the time of pupils the teachers would have 
sway. So it is in many of the institutions of 
higher learning ; college faculties and the teach- 
ing force of endowed schools settle their own 
problems. This is certainly not the case with 
the public schools. 

If an analysis be made of the distribution of 
powers in the educational commonwealth, the 
most influential persons are the school superin- 
tendents ; they are not always secure of their 
tenure, but they can usually introduce, im- 
mediately or gradually, any scheme of reform 
which does not involve the expenditure of more 
money, and which can be carried out with the 
teachers whom they are allowed to employ. 
Hence, perhaps the most encouraging thing in 
the recent movements for the improvement of 
grammar-school education is the interest taken 
by the best and most active superintendents 
throughout the country. 

Next in point of power come the school 
boards. In some of the large cities these are 
political machines ; in Cleveland the board be- 



24 ©rammars=Scbool IReform, 

came so bad that by State enactment a new 
organization has been brought about in which 
the superintendent is made almost autocratic. 
Still, in many large cities, and in most smaller 
places, the school board is controlled by well- 
meaning and intelligent men ; and in every 
board, good or bad, are some members well 
acquainted with the schools and eager to im- 
prove them. It is in the power of the school 
boards to force reforms upon unwilling superin- 
tendents ; but they never can carry out great 
changes without the aid of the teachers. 

The third moving force in the public schools 
is the " educators." These are sometimes men 
who have spent their lives in public-school 
work, sometimes private individuals, sometimes 
the principals of great secondary schools, or the 
presidents of colleges. They have better op- 
portunities than most superintendents and mem- 
bers of boards of education to observe the work- 
ings of American education in all parts of the 
country and to compare them with foreign 
schools of the same grade. It is their mission 
to arouse the public to the need of reform. 

The fourth source of educational energy is in 
the public at large. In the Northern and West- 
ern States there is little difficulty in raising 
money for good schools, and everywhere peo- 
ple are sincerely disappointed if they find their 
children going on year after year with little 



BDucational aforces. 25 



progress. If the public can once be convinced 
that the expenditure of time and money on the 
public schools ought to produce a greater re- 
sult, then reform can be brought about ; but the 
details will always be settled primarily by the 
superintendents, and, in a less degree, by the 
school boards. 

Fifth, and last, come the teachers, who are in 
the unfortunate position of exercising great re- 
sponsibility without much opportunity to make 
their preferences felt. So far from constituting 
the moving force of the schools, they are help- 
less links in an endless educational chain, pick- 
ing up one batch of children after another and 
carrying them in a direction which often they' 
do not approve. So far from the teachers form- 
ing a profession, they are more like the em- 
ployees of a great railroad. They have not 
built it, they do not control it ; they may manage 
their train, but that train moves at a prescribed 
pace over a prescribed route, carrying a pre- 
scribed number of little passengers in each car. 

In Cambridge, as elsewhere, we must reckon 
with all these forces, though the conditions are 
probably more favorable to a reform in public- 
school education than in many other cities. 
The number of children of school age was, in 
May, 1893, about twelve thousand six hundred, 
out of a total population of about eighty thou- 
sand ; of these children five thousand five hun- 



26 <5rammar«Scbool IReform. 

dred are in the grammar-schools. The school 
buildings are good, though by no means equal 
to those of many Western cities; the newer 
structures are well lighted and ventilated. The 
average expenditure per pupil throughout the 
schools was in 1893 $18.51 for salaries, and about 
$1.10 a year for the abundant free text-books and 
supplies, furnished by the city. The supervision 
is less elaborate than in many cities ; up to 1892 
one superintendent performed the whole duty, 
and now he has but one assistant, a lady. All 
the elements of school government have, how- 
ever, been unusually well disposed toward mak- 
ing some change in the grammar-schools. The 
superintendent himself, once a principal in one 
of the grammar-schools of the city, has long 
been convinced that those schools were spend- 
ing too much time and accomplishing too little. 
The school board acts entirely without ref- 
erence to political parties, and although a series 
of accidents has brought in a large number of 
new members during the last five years, they 
have been persons willing to spend the neces- 
sary time to acquaint themselves with the needs 
of the schools. The element of warning and 
good counsel has been especially well repre- 
sented in Cambridge. The officers of several 
teachers' associations are found among the 
Cambridge teachers ; and the President of 
Harvard University has freely raised his voice 



Cambridge Scbools^ 27 

in criticism of the grammar-school system and 
of the Cambridge grammar-schools as an illus- 
tration of that system. It is difficult to say how 
far the public at large has been interested in the 
proposed changes ; there has certainly been no 
protest against them. The teachers, as soon as 
they understood that no change would be made 
without their co-operation, and without their 
having a previous opportunity to discuss the 
details and to suggest amendments, have taken 
a most gratifying interest in the whole matter. 
As soon as the newly constituted school com- 
mittee was organized, in January, 1892, a motion 
was made for the appointment of a special 
subcommittee to examine into the whole ques- 
tion of the time and subject-matter of the 
grammar-school curriculum. The committee 
embraced two of the most experienced and 
conservative members of the board, besides 
some younger and more impulsive spirits. It 
adopted the plan of holding a kind of invitation 
meeting. Thus into one session were intro- 
duced superintendents and teachers from those 
neighboring cities in which new methods and 
new subjects had been introduced. At another 
time the masters of the grammar-schools were 
invited to present their views with regard to 
shortening the grammar-school course. Again 
a delegation of teachers was called in to meet 
several experts in the new subjects which it 



I 



28 (BrammarsScbool IRetorm* 

was proposed to introduce ; and all the mem- 
bers of the school board were at one time or 
another invited to sit with the committee 
and to take part in its deliberations. The 
purpose was that the committee might 
clearly understand the difficulties in the way of 
reform, and might put itself so far as possible 
in the place of those by whom new methods 
were to be carried out. Most of the objections 
were thus obviated by changes in the scheme, 
or at least had been considered before report 
was made. The result of the committee's la- 
bors, therefore, met with gratifying approval, 
and their recommendations were adopted, with 
a few verbal changes, precisely as they were 
made. 

It was not difficult for the committee to make 
up their minds as to what ought to be accom- 
plished in a grammar-school education. Chil- 
dren go to school less to learn than to learn 
how ; less to acquire a stock of ideas than to 
put ideas together. School training is very 
like gymnasium training ; people do not raise 
weights for the sake of driving clocks with 
them, but in order that they may raise heavier 
weights hereafter. Throughout American edu- 
cation too much stress has been laid upon 
acquisition, and too little on the development 
of power. What the Cambridge school board 
desires is to make out of its boys and girls 



^be Commfttee*6 Bfm, 29 

practical, sensible men and women, able to meet 
and decide the questions which come to them. 
But we have two very distinct classes of pupils 
in the grammar-schools : children who do not 
expect to go beyond the grammar-schools and 
children on their way to college. Of course 
the lower schools, the academies, high-schools, 
colleges, and universities are all engaged in 
different branches of the same pursuit; of 
course they must work together. Cambridge 
makes careful and very expensive provision for 
the preparation of boys and girls for college. 
Should the city begin below its Latin School, 
and make in the grammar-schools any sort of 
special provision for future college students? 
In the minds of the committee it seemed far 
more important to organize as good a course as 
possible for those who stop at the end of the 
grammar-schools. It seems likely that an im- 
proved course would also direct many children 
into the road toward higher education ; but the 
determining motive has been the desire to fur- 
nish the best education possible to those who 
will have no other opportunity; to make the 
people's schools more popular because more 
effective, and to carry more children to the end 
of the grammar-school course. 

Two problems now presented themselves 
which appeared to nullify each other. The 
experience of other cities and of other coun- 



30 6rammat*Scbool IRetorm, 

tries seemed to show that the Cambridge gram- 
mar-school course was too long. On the other 
hand, the schools have been urged in the last 
three or four years to cover more ground. To 
shorten the course seemed possible ; to increase 
it seemed possible ; could it both be shortened 
and increased ? A few months ago a young 
lady who was taking a civil-service examina- 
tion in Cambridge, looking forward to a posi- 
tion under the city government, made the fol- 
lowing written statement : " When a child I 
went to a primary school in Cambridge. As 
there were four teachers and four rooms, I was 
four years in passing through that school." It 
is literally true that, although the primary 
course required but three years, every child 
who went through that particular school at the 
time when she attended it was obliged to take 
an extra year, because it was more " conven- 
ient " than to break the four rooms up into 
three grades. Of late years such stifling appli- 
cations of red tape have not been permitted ; 
nevertheless, until recently, it was not possible 
for any child, however quick, to finish a gram- 
mar-school course in Cambridge in less than 
six years, although in Western cities the same 
ground is commonly covered in five years. Ex- 
perience has shown that six is by no means a 
magic number, since eighteen per cent, of our 
grammar-school pupils spent at least seven 



(3rammar*Scbool **SMppera/' 31 

years on the way. The school board has for 
some time sought to remedy this artificial sys- 
tem by authorizing masters to advance pupils 
by a process of " skipping." A bright child 
might thus be carried from the fourth direct in- 
to the second grade, leaving out the third grade ; 
or, more commonly, small classes of " skippers ** 
have been formed to do the work of three years 
in two. About thirty per cent, of the grammar- 
school graduates have taken advantage of this 
system, and about five per cent, have " skip- 
ped " twice. The result has been a practical 
variation of the course from four to seven years, 
according to the ability of the pupil. By an 
easy amplification of this principle it seemed 
possible to make the same allowance for individ- 
uals, but to make the course more regular and 
to avoid gaps left by the " skippers," this has 
been accomplished by a novel system devised 
by the superintendent, and put into effect for the 
first time in 1892. Two grammar-school courses 
are arranged side by side, one of them to re- 
quire six years and the other four ; but each 
of these courses is subdivided into two periods 
or forms. The combination of the lower quick- 
moving form of two years, and the upper quick- 
moving form makes a four-years' course. The 
combination of the lower quick-moving and the 
upper slow-moving form of three years, or vice 
versa, makes a five years' course. The combina- 



32 0rammar*Scbool IReform. 

tion of the two halves of the slow-moving divi- 
sion makes a six years* course. Thus, without 
reorganizing the schools, it is possible to make 
every reasonable allowance for the abilities and 
opportunities of children. A child who loses a 
year from sickness may make it up by going 
into the quick-moving division ; a child who 
proves too delicate for that work may be trans- 
ferred to the slower division ; and such trans- 
fers are made at any time according to the 
discretion of the masters. The system has 
now had two years' trial and has justified the 
expectations of its advocates. The proportion 
of seven-years' pupils is sensibly reduced ; and 
nearly half the children get through in five 
years or less. 

Two objections may be suggested to this 
scheme. One is, that it will be necessary for 
teachers to have two grades in one room. This 
is not by any means a misfortune. In the coun- 
try district schools it is well known that the 
younger children often learn the lessons of the 
older from hearing their recitations ; the influ- 
ence of one grade of children upon the other 
in city schools may be equally decided and 
valuable. The other objection is that the sys- 
tem produces irregularity and confusion. One 
of the chief educational officers of the Com- 
monwealth of Massachusetts once said : " Unity 
in these things is desirable, not only because 



lC>aranel Ssstem. 33 



unity of results requires it, but because the 
largest and truest progress can be secured in 
no other way. There should be unity also in 
the methods of teaching." So long as the Al- 
mighty does not make His children uniform, 
whether young or old, a system founded upon 
regularity must be evil. The attempt to com- 
press into the same grade, pursuing the same 
studies, children who have been the same 
number of years in school, is an attempt which 
must result in silting up the inferior minds and 
in blunting the superior. The ideal system 
of teaching would be that of the old district 
schools and of some of the best private schools 
— to form a class whenever half a dozen children 
could be found of about the same degree of ad- 
vancement, and to keep several classes in one 
room, for the sake of the mutual influence of 
the children on each other. 

Nevertheless, it must be admitted that the 
scheme requires more care, thought, and su- 
pervision than an ordinary graded school. 
There are two ways in which much of the dif- 
ficulty may be avoided. One is the so-called 
departmental system, by which one teacher 
will teach but one or a few subjects ; it has 
been adopted in the Workingman's School in 
New York and elsewhere, and one of the mas- 
ters of the Cambridge schools has desired to 
make a trial of it. While it seems likely that 
3 



34 <3i:ammar=Scbool IReform. 

this system, which is familiar in the gymnasia 
in Germany, will eventually be introduced, the 
experience of the schools which have tried it 
in this country is not wholly favorable. What 
the children gain in efficiency of teaching they 
sometimes lose from a weakened discipline. A 
different step has, therefore, been taken in 
Cambridge, to provide for the difficult}^ of 
handling the carefully classified pupils. In the 
large buildings " teachers without grade " have 
been appointed, who make up small classes of 
children deficient in particular subjects and 
bring them forward more rapidly than would 
be possible in the ordinary school-room. By 
a temporary shifting of teachers this will make 
it possible to look out for individual needs and 
to relieve the schools of the children who have 
been blocking the way by staying more years 
than was good for them. An advantage of the 
system is that it practically increases the ca- 
pacity of the buildings, and is thus a saving to 
the taxpayer. 

A third objection to the whole system ought 
to be considered, not because it has force, but 
because it is perhaps weighty in the minds of 
the public : it is that such variations in the 
schools are undemocratic. True democratic 
equality, however, consists in the right of every 
man to make the most of his natural powers. 
No social system can be arranged which does 



tTeacbere Mltbout (Brabe. 35 

not take cognizance of the difference of ability 
between man and man. The elastic arrangement 
is distinctly in the interest of poor but bright 
children, who may be brought forward more 
rapidly and may be better trained if some ac- 
count be taken of their special abilities. It is 
the duty of the public schools to promote 
equality ; but they promote it best, not by de- 
nying advantages to the fortunate part of the 
community, best endowed and in the most fa- 
vorable circumstances, but by bestowing them 
and pressing them upon those whose active 
minds will never be properly improved except 
by giving them special attention. 

The Cambridge schools are thus fully com- 
mitted to a plan by which it is hoped that the 
average time in the grammar-schools will be 
five years or less. It has not been the purpose 
to diminish the amount of study at present re- 
quired, because experience has shown that it 
may be well performed in five or even four 
years. The next question which arose was 
whether the same amount of energy and study 
may not be made more interesting and more 
stimulating by a rearrangement of work and the 
introduction of new subjects. The old curricu- 
lum of the Cambridge schools was simple, on 
the whole, reasonable, and certainly not exces- 
sive in amount. Reading was kept up through 
all the six grades, authorized readers continu- 



3^ 6rammar*Scbool IRetorm. 

ing through the eighth grade, and standard 
English authors being introduced in the sev- 
enth grade, half - way through the course. 
Spelling continued through four of the six 
grades with a spelling-book, besides the cor- 
rection of written exercises from time to time. 
Formal grammar was taught with a text-book 
in all the grades. Geography ran throughout 
the course with poor text-books, and with more 
or less of the senseless superposition of maps 
upon artificial geometrical figures. Arithmetic 
continued throughout all the grades, but the 
more difficult and technical subjects were set 
aside to be added only at the discretion of 
the masters. This was then the work of the 
six years: reading, spelling, grammar, geog- 
raphy, and arithmetic, with the minor subjects 
of physiology, a little history, music, drawing, 
penmanship, and the use of the dictionary. Not 
much is here included besides the essentials of 
an intelligent existence : pupils left the gram- 
mar-schools able to read, to write, to cipher, 
to parse, with some notion of the earth's sur- 
face, and, it must be admitted, with consider- 
able ability to express themselves cogently in 
the mother tongue. Instruction in the use of 
the English language has much improved in 
recent years, and already received great atten- 
tion before the committee began its labors. 
It was not apparent that any of these subjects 



trbe IHsual Curriculum. 37 

could be omitted ; it did seem, however, that a 
part of the six years might somehow be re- 
leased. A great deal of time was spent in re- 
views. An eminent surgeon said of anatomy 
that it was a subject which you could not know 
until you had learned and forgotten it seven 
times ; possibly grammar-masters have some 
such principle in mind. In practice the reviews 
served, however, not so much to recall what 
had been learned by bright scholars, as to teach 
pupils what they ought to have learned in the 
grade below ; in Cambridge, as throughout 
the country, those scholars who least respond 
to the teacher usually get most of her time. 
The four and six years' plan has relieved the 
schools by separating out the scholars who 
really need review, so that the quicker division 
may go directly into new subjects. Again, the 
committee became satisfied that a great deal of 
time had been spent to little purpose in getting 
classes ready for examinations, and the school 
board voted that henceforth there shall be no 
stated examinations, and that promotions shall 
be made upon the record of the term work. 
These two reforms — putting bright pupils 
ahead into the subjects which they are able to 
take up, and the saving of unnecessary review 
preparatory to examination — left the schools 
more time than they had previously. Another 
saving was possible by simplifying the work, 



3^ (5rammar*Scbool IRetorm* 

particularly in arithmetic ; there is a great ten- 
dency on the part of teachers to emphasize this 
subject by giving long, complicated, and numer- 
ous problems instead of more simple examples. 
Another loss of time may be avoided by simpli- 
fying the study of language ; it does not seem 
necessary that intelligent children should for 
five successive years be taking up the principles 
of grammar. Surely what is necessary to re- 
member may at last be learned ; whatever 
training comes from such subjects may at last 
be had ; and the pupils' minds may some time 
be turned to fresher and more interesting 
topics. 

When in 1890 the suggestion was first thrown 
out that the grammar-schools were teaching 
too little, it was met with incredulity, with de- 
nial, and personal abuse. It has now been re- 
peated, developed, and illustrated by so many 
eminent teachers, administrators, and heads of 
great systems of public education that the com- 
munity accepts it, and even the teachers ac- 
knowledge it. In fact, the opposition to the 
proposed reform has sprung chiefly out of mis- 
apprehension ; when the grammar-school sys- 
tem was criticised, the grammar-school teach- 
ers felt that they were attacked ; whereas they, 
like the rest of the community, were sufferers 
from a system for which they could not be held 
responsible. The most important advance in 



irnertness of tbe Scbools. 39 

the subject was that made November 6, 1891, 
by the Association of Colleges in New Eng- 
land. Although the members of that body 
were all engaged in college teaching, their 
recommendation does not appear to have 
sprung from any desire to make the grammar- 
schools feeders for higher schools ; they were 
interested in the public schools as citizens, and 
many of them as fathers of public-school chil- 
dren. 

What shall be done with the time saved to 
the schools by cutting off examinations and 
tedious reviews and simplifying the subjects 
previously taught ? The Association of Colleges 
in New England recommended that algebra 
and geometry be introduced into the grammar- 
schools. The Cambridge schools then included 
in their mathematical studies mental and written 
arithmetic throughout the six grades, and book- 
keeping. The book-keeping was in most cases 
of a simple kind, and it has been thought wise 
to abandon the pretentious and undeserved title 
and substitute the term, " simple personal and 
business accounts." Arithmetic has long been 
chosen as, on the whole, the principal subject in 
the grammar-schools, both because of its prac- 
tical applications, and of the excellent training 
to the mind resulting from its precision. Yet 
in the ordinary study of arithmetic there has 
been too little development of the reasoning 



40 (Brammat^sScbool IReform* 

powers ; under poor teachers the rules have 
been learned and applied by rote. On the 
other hand, there are two mathematical sub- 
jects — algebra and geometry — in which train- 
ing is the larger element; in one, algebra, the 
processes are closely akin to those of arith- 
metic. If a choice of new subjects must be 
made, it seems desirable to take geometry, be- 
cause its point of view is different, and because 
the exactness of logical reasoning makes up for 
some of the loose habits of thought which chil- 
dren get in other subjects. Geometry, proper- 
ly taught, is one of the most interesting of sub- 
jects, and it may readily be allied with drawing 
and with mensuration ; the schools may thus 
teach in a more or less regular fashion the prop- 
erties of geometrical forms, and the relations to 
each other of lines and angles. In one of the 
towns near Boston, in which that study has been 
introduced into the schools, the boys have de- 
veloped an interesting practical application ; 
they go about and offer to calculate the height 
of their neighbors* houses, by means of their 
simple instruments and formulas. If this part 
of the school study be combined and organized, 
and made to advance from year to year, it will 
lead up by the most natural steps to the study 
of simple geometrical problems. The Cam- 
bridge school board has therefore adopted the 
study of geometry as obligatory in the gram- 



©eometci? and Blgcbra. 41 

mar-schools. Some of the teachers hesitated 
on this point, and some of them preferred the 
teaching of algebra. The board has therefore 
authorized any master who so chooses, to in- 
troduce algebra in the last year in connection 
with arithmetic. 

Next come reading and language. Every 
well-educated man needs the knowledge of 
some language besides his own ; but in America 
there is not the same practical necessity for the 
use of modern languages as abroad. We have 
but two neighboring countries in which Eng- 
lish is not spoken, Cuba and Mexico ; and few 
Americans have any occasion to use Spanish. 
Still, nothing surpasses the study of foreign lan- 
guages in the effect upon one's own vocabulary 
and mode of speech ; and no man who desires to 
use the thoughts of current writers on scientific 
or technical subjects can get on without French 
and German. Hence it has been suggested 
that the study of some language should be 
introduced into the grammar-schools, and the 
only convenient tongues are Latin, French, and 
German. Any one of these may be pursued 
with advantage by American children, as they 
are by boys and girls of the same age in foreign 
countries ; while it may be no argument to say 
that because a subject is studied abroad it 
ought to be studied in America, we surely can- 
not admit that American children are less ca- 



42 6rammar*Scbool tdctotm. 

pable or develop less rapidly than those in for- 
eign countries. If an American boy and a Ger- 
man boy were cast away upon the same desert 
island, the American would take care of himself 
and save his comrade's life ; but if an American 
young man of twenty be put side by side with 
a German young man of the same age, he finds 
himself inferior in the power to deal with new 
problems in science, in logic, or in the work- 
ings of the human mind ; whereas, with his bet- 
ter start and surroundings, he ought to excel. 
His greater experience in practical matters, in 
self-protection, in money-making, ought not to 
interfere with skill in the use of his reasoning 
powers. The difficulty in the introduction of 
languages is not that they are too hard for the 
pupil, but that they are too severe for the tax- 
payer. Three-quarters of the children in the 
Cambridge grammar-schools could get a great 
deal of good out of any one of the three men- 
tioned ; about one-twentieth of them would be 
much aided in their preparation for college ; 
every pupil who had a foreign language would 
understand the use of English better. The dif- 
ficulty is that foreign tongues are not so eas- 
ily taught as spelling, arithmetic, and geog- 
raphy ; good teachers in these branches are 
difficult to find for any institution ; and if intro- 
duced on a large scale, languages require costly 
supervision. Hence it is much easier to intro- 



Xanguagea* 43 



duce a new language into a town having one 
graded school than where there are a dozen 
large schools. 

No recommendation was made to the Cam- 
bridge school committee on other modern lan- 
guages, but the sub-committee suggested im- 
portant reforms in the teaching of English. 
In the first place, formal grammar lessons, in- 
cluding learning of parts of speech and pars- 
ing, are to be confined henceforth to the last 
two-thirds of the grammar schools. In the 
second place, set spelling lessons are to stop at 
the end of the first two-thirds of the grammar 
schools. In the third place (and this is one of 
the most important reforms), extended extracts 
from standard English authors are to be read 
in all grades side by side with the authorized 
readers, and in the latter part of the course to 
supersede them. Manj^ of the modern school 
readers are excellently selected, and have inter- 
esting matter of good literary flavor ; but they 
are choppy, and children, except in the last year 
of their course, have almost no opportunity in 
school to become acquainted with the great 
English and American writers ; hence, possibly, 
the growing desire of Americans, in their home 
reading, to descend from short books to short 
articles, and thence to short paragraphs. 

The next change suggested is in the teaching 
of geography. Political geography and his- 



44 6rammar*Scbool IRetorm* 

tory are thenceforth to be treated together as 
branches of the same subject. Physical geog- 
raphy is to be expanded and to be grouped with 
science. The details of the new course have not 
yet been worked out, but they will include, as 
fast as the means of the board will allow, the 
use of maps, apparatus, and models. Children 
are to be taught to look on physical geography 
as a part of the development of the crust of the 
earth, then to connect with the contour of the 
earth's surface the movements of the winds, 
and finally, to observe the effect of physical 
causes on the settlement and development of 
nations. 

The last new subject introduced was physics. 
Here it has been much more difficult than in the 
other changes to frame the right kind of course 
and to fit it into the grammar-school system. 
The choice of the board was between two sys- 
tems ; they might, as in many cities, teach chil- 
dren to notice flowers, trees, rocks, and stones, 
to count their fingers and toes, and to compare 
them with the hoofs of horses and cattle, and 
then call that science ; on the other hand, they 
might choose some one branch of science and 
teach it in such a way as to give children their 
first ideas of scientific methods and scientific 
accuracy. After considering all possible sub- 
jects, the board finally resolved to introduce 
experimental physics, the recommendation to 



take effect after a year. The difficulties have 
proved serious, but not insurmountable. In the 
first place, some part of each building must be 
set aside for a little laboratory, and most of the 
school-houses are already well occupied ; it has 
proved, however, that the corner of an assem- 
bly-room, a lobby, or even an unused cloak- 
room, may be furnished with a few rough ap- 
pliances sufficient for the purpose. The next 
difficulty is the lack of apparatus ; it had been 
estimated that to fit up the rudest laboratory, 
so that it would be sufficient for the use of a 
grammar-school, would cost two hundred dol- 
lars, and perhaps more. Experience has shown 
that sixteen sets of the necessary apparatus — 
sufficient to fit out as large a section as can be 
conveniently taught at once — cost eighty to 
ninety dollars. The necessary tables for sixteen 
persons cost forty-five to fifty dollars. The 
teacher's list of appliances and certain miscel- 
laneous supplies cost about thirty dollars. One 
hundred and fifty to one hundred and seventy- 
five dollars will hence stock a suitable little 
laboratory. It was thought that the boys in 
the manual training-school would be sufficiently 
advanced to make most of the necessary appa- 
ratus, and the superintendent of that school 
helped on the system by constructing some 
necessary pieces, at the cost of materials. But 
the boys proved not to be sufficiently skilled to 



4^ Grammar^Scbool IRetorm. 

make the accurate and delicate pieces required. 
The third difficulty was the lack of trained 
teachers, and it was met by providing special 
normal instruction in physics during two years. 
Of all the subjects proposed this is probably 
the most desirable, both for its training and for 
its practical applications. No other goes so 
far in suggesting to children to look below the 
surface for the cause of things ; and no study 
is more likely to be useful to boys and girls 
who are hereafter to use their hands and their 
heads in any kind of trade which calls for man- 
ual skill. 

The four new subjects thus proposed are 
English literature, geometry, physical geogra- 
phy from a new stand-point, and physics. The 
Cambridge teachers are certainly equal to the 
average of their profession. Before appoint- 
ment most of them have had a high-school edu- 
cation, a normal-school education, and an expe- 
rience of one year, preferably in the Cambridge 
training-school for teachers, which is part of the 
school system. Yet not many except the mas- 
ters were prepared properly to teach geometry, 
physics, or physical geography. Some special 
provision for training in these subjects would 
have been necessary at the public expense, and 
it is doubtful whether the scheme, loaded down 
by such a necessity, could have been accepted. 
At this point Harvard University, with an un- 



ConDUfons of IReform. 47 

derstanding of the inter-dependence of com- 
mon-school and college education, agreed to 
furnish, at its own expense, normal instruction 
for the Cambridge teachers in the three sub- 
jects named. The successful workings of this 
system will be described in the next essay. 

It is apparent that the conditions for a reform 
in the grammar-schools in Cambridge were 
unusually favorable. The city has been placed 
in the midst of a long discussion of the subject, 
in which some of the grammar-school teachers 
have been engaged. The superintendent has 
been unusually interested ; the school commit- 
tee have given an amount of time and consid- 
eration to the subject which could not be se- 
cured every year. The teachers are interested, 
and the university has simplified the whole 
problem by providing for the necessary special 
instruction of the teachers. Furthermore, it 
has not been attempted to make all the changes 
which have been suggested by the New Eng- 
land Association of Colleges and elsewhere. 
Algebra has not been made obligatory. No 
new language has been introduced, and but 
two sciences, physics and physical geography. 
Most cities could undertake these reforms 
without serious additional expense ; but every 
school board must make up its mind that the 
saving of time means, not that less money need 
be expended on the schools, but that a bet- 



48 GrammarsScbool IRetotm. 

ter education may be furnished for the same 
outlay. It is estimated that in Cambridge five 
hundred scholars were spending an unneces- 
sary year, at a total cost of about nine thousand 
dollars ; but under the new system most of those 
five hundred children would simply add that 
extra year to the top of their present schooling. 
The result will be an incalculable advantage to 
the community, but not a lessening in the tax- 
rate. 



III. 

XDlntver5tt^ patttcipatton— H Substitute tor 
"Clntverstt^ jEjtenston* 



In the history of Florence there was once a 
time when the only people who felt that they 
had power and security were the nobles, who, 
from their towered fortresses, looked down 
upon the multitude ; there was another time, a 
little later, when those same nobles began to 
sue for admission into the great trade guilds 
which had become a power in the state. Much 
such a change is coming over American educa- 
tion. For many years the colleges went on 
their way with little reference to the secondary, 
and especially to the public, schools. Now, 
however, university presidents consult the 
secondary schools which furnish them with 
students, and are interested in every grade of 
education. The college men are now the neo- 
phytes, the apprentices, the learners, so that 
at the meeting of school superintendents in 
Boston, in 1893, two professors were present as 
official delegates of Columbia College. Per- 
4 (49) 



50 '(Sinivetsit^ Iparttcfpatlon, 

haps the most cheerful symptom in the present 
educational movement is the exchange of views 
by teachers from all sorts of institutions. It is 
a period of good feeling, of common interest, 
of mutual understanding, and of co-operation 
between the public schools and the universities 
of the land. 

This is also a period of searching examination 
into the character and needs of our schools ; 
and educators throughout the country seem to 
recognize three ways in which education may 
be improved. In the first place, the public calls 
imperatively for a widening of interest for the 
pupils : the fight on that point is apparently 
almost over; it seems an accepted principle 
that such broadening may be brought about by 
the introduction of new branches into the gram- 
mar and lower schools. 

The second need, both for schools and col- 
leges, is the development of training methods 
of study ; the disappearance of the idea that we 
are trying " to teach pupils what," and the sub- 
stitution of the idea that we are trying to 
" teach pupils how." To this demand the pro- 
posed new studies distinctly lead ; for they can 
be successfully taught only by proper scientific 
methods. 

The third and greatest need of the schools 
is that the teachers themselves be properly 
trained. The new subjects and the reformed 



1Wee&5 of tbe Scbools. 51 

methods both call for preparation improved in 
kind and degree ; but everybody acquainted 
with the schools of the country knows that the 
teachers have too little training even for the 
old subjects and inferior methods. The body 
of private and public school teachers is intelli- 
gent, conscientious, and painstaking ; they are 
doing much, but doing it imperfectly, because 
they are imperfectly educated. 

Of course this defect is not now discovered 
for the first time. Many years ago, Horace 
Mann convinced the tax-paying public of Mas- 
sachusetts that the community needed normal 
schools for teachers ; we have now pedagogic 
courses in many colleges ; and special public 
training schools are established in a few enlight- 
ened cities. The inefficiency of these agencies 
is seen in the fact that primary, grammar, and 
even secondary teachers are constantly finding 
employment without any of these forms of train- 
ing, or at least with no evidence of benefit from 
them. 

This is not the place to discuss the reasons 
for the failure properly to educate the teachers 
who seek preparation. What this essay aims 
to do is to discuss the status of the teachers 
who now spend five days every week in the • 
severe toil of the school-room ; to ask how they 
may have their horizons widened, their work 
brightened, and their efficiency increased. Not 



52 lUnlvereftB iparttcfpatfom 

that there are no existing systems intended to 
provide for teachers in service. Teachers' insti- 
tutes do something in this direction, but their 
fundamental defect is that they are nearly all 
" pour in " institutions. The effect on the in- 
tellectual development is like the effect of going 
to church on the moral character : it is a stimu- 
lus, a suggestion, and an aid, but it is not in 
itself a religious life. More promising are the 
special teachers' meetings held in large cities ; 
too often they also become a place for hearing 
some one else tell you " how you ought to do 
it;" there is nothing to work out, and little 
reaction of the teachers on each other. An- 
other suggestion, which was repeatedly put for- 
ward at the 1892 meeting of superintendents in 
Boston, was that teachers most need pedagogic 
reading, and especially a private study of psy- 
chology. The suggestiveness of such studies 
is undeniable, but they are no more a normal 
education than reading a geometry is mathe- 
matics. Teachers need to acquire, to state, and 
illustrate principles. What they need still more 
is practice in properly applying those principles. 
The only device which has been even moder- 
ately successful for teachers already in service 
is the summer schools ; they furnish communi- 
cation with a new range of thought, and with 
scientific methods worked out carefully ; and, so 
far as they are practice courses, there is an 



afacfUtfes for ZTrafnlng* 53 

opportunity for actual work and for sharpening 
the faculties. Against the system there are 
several objections ; it destroys the vacation of 
teachers and taught, and it involves an expense 
which seriously limits its usefulness. 

A few years ago the magic phrase " univer- 
sity extension " flashed over the country. 

Nor slacked the messenger his pace ; 
He showed the sign, he named the place, 
And, pressing forward like the wind, 
Left clamor and surprise behind. 

No one can deny the advantage to the public 
and to the universities of this helpful relation. 
It has had a broadening and enlarging effect ; 
it has been a stimulus to many teachers. Never- 
theless in several respects university extension 
has not completely justified its name. In the 
first place, a part of the work has fallen into 
a form which is neither genuine nor useful. 
There is a pseudo " university extension " which 
has behind it really no university at all, but 
simply a society, a journal, a seminary, a pro- 
gramme, and a lustily blown trumpet. When 
one hears of " staff lecturers," one sighs for a 
school-extension system to teach the instruc- 
tors ; for a staff lecturer is a person whom 
no university authorizes to teach its own stu- 
dents, but who is supposed to carry university 
instruction to others outside. Such a system 



54 xanlverBiti^ ipartfcipation. 

is nothing more nor less than a lecture bureau 
conducted on semi-charitable principles. In 
order to extend a university, you must have a 
university to extend. 

In the second place, the university extension 
teachers are able in very few cases to carry on 
work of the character of that done within 
college walls. What are the characteristics of 
university training, if not the specialization of 
studies, the use of elaborate collections and 
apparatus, the application of a scientific meth- 
od to all branches of learning, and personal 
contact with specialist instructors, masters 
of their particular subjects ? To the popular 
mind, university extension means the carrying 
of teaching away from the universities to outly- 
ing communities; and it is evident that such 
courses must be divorced from the essential 
university spirit. They are useful, they are 
enlightening, they are encouraging, they are 
stimulating, but they are not of the university. 
Sets of ten lectures cannot be made educa- 
tive in the university sense ; the development 
of the subject in the mind of the student is an 
essential characteristic of university study ; 
the element of previous preparation and train- 
ing must also in most cases be wanting in out- 
side courses. It is impossible to duplicate col- 
lege instruction without duplicating the college 
and its surroundings. 



•Clnfverelts JBitcmion. 55 

The third criticism on university extension 
as a system is that it neglects its greatest op- 
portunity to improve education throughout 
the country, in that it does not sufficiently pro- 
vide courses for teachers. The members of 
that profession are, indeed, the most interested 
of the auditors of university extension courses ; 
they make up a considerable majority of the 
hearers ; and they are almost the only students 
from whom systematic work can be obtained. 
Is it not, then, reasonable that the time, mon- 
ey, and energy so generously poured into the 
movement of university extension should be 
carefully applied for the benefit of the class 
most inclined to appreciate its advantages ? Is 
it not possible to devise a system which shall 
be rooted and grounded in actual universities 
and resident instructors, which shall require 
actual work of the same quality, if not precisely 
of the same kind and degree, as that asked of 
college students, and which shall interest the 
great body of conscientious teachers now in 
service ? In other words, can we not find some 
practical means by which teachers of the public 
schools may come under the training influence 
of the universities, and through which the uni- 
versities may learn how to contribute toward 
supplying the needs of common-school educa- 
tion ? 

It is, of course, difficult to lay down with 



56 •Clnfver5its Ipartfctpatlon, 

confidence the details of a scheme somewhat 
complicated and dependent on the co-operation 
of colleges with school boards, superintendents, 
teachers, and the general public. But it seems 
altogether possible to draw up a general plan 
of teachers' normal courses which shall be 
offered by colleges, and to which the name 
" University Participation " might not unrea- 
sonably be applied. It should be based on the 
following general principles : 

1. The object should be training, and the 
training of teachers already in service. 

2. The subjects ought to be those commonly 
taught in primary and grammar schools, with 
some reference also to secondary schools. 

3. The methods ought to be active and scien- 
tific, including the use of apparatus, collections, 
and libraries. 

4. The expense must fall in the long run in 
considerable part on the universities. 

A feeling of responsibility in this matter has 
sprung up simultaneously in several different 
colleges. Courses have been offered in Brown 
University, at the University of Pennsylvania, 
by Columbia through the Teachers' College, 
by Leland Stanford, Jr., University, by the 
University of Minnesota, and elsewhere. Th.e 
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and 
probably other scientific schools, have estab- 
lished teachers' courses in science. From the 



S)utg of iSiniXfcveiUcs, 57 

experience of the courses which have been 
offered by Harvard University is drawn 
much of the material for this essay. The 
system thus suggested is not at all the same 
as that of the lecture courses for teachers 
offered by many colleges ; they have undoubt- 
edly been instructive and broadening, but, like 
almost all the other devices for persons already 
at work, they are simply " fill up " courses. They 
arouse thought, but not action ; they are ex- 
tensive, but not " intensive," they are instruc- 
tion, but they are not education. They make 
better men and women, but do not distinctly 
tend toward making better teachers. 

The first point to emphasize is that university 
teachers' courses ought to be specific, and not 
to aim at a general all-round education. The 
purpose of a system of university participation 
is to aid the teachers to do, in a better fashion, 
what they are now doing ; practical psychology 
might well form one of the special subjects ; but 
psychology in itself is not a complete peda- 
gogic education. On the other hand, the work 
must not take the form of simply furnish- 
ing the teachers with a basket of educational 
oranges which they are to deal out to their 
children one by one until exhausted. Several 
of the auditors in Cambridge have complained 
that in their training courses the instructors 
have given them a great many things which 



58 innfversitis iparticfpation. 

cannot be used with their pupils. What else 
is the purpose of educational training, if not 
to put the teacher into possession of more than 
he can possibly use ? No one understands bet- 
ter than the college professor the discomfort 
of poling with a class across the shallows of 
one's own knowledge, with the dread that 
some quick pupil may discover how nearly the 
instructor is aground. It is not the object in 
Cambridge to make out a course for the chil- 
dren and then to teach up to that course, but 
to put the teachers in possession of the ele- 
ments of their subject and the relations of the 
parts, so that they may intelligently select for 
themselves that which they think adapted for 
their children. 

On the other hand, we must cut our coat ac- 
cording to our cloth ; the methods, so far as 
they go, must be thorough, but we cannot ex- 
pect to get a great deal of time from teachers 
over whom the roller of the week's work is 
passing. Perhaps two to three hours' work 
each week, besides the exercises, is all that we 
can safely demand. 

What subjects may profitably be taken up in 
teachers' training courses ? Such as are usually 
taught in the grammar-schools. Mr. Mitts 
said, when asked where Dudley Chester got 
his Latin and Greek : " He had to learn some- 
thing at Yale." So most of the high -school 



Iproper Subjects* 59 



teachers are college graduates, and it might be 
unseemly to suggest that possibly they are not 
all prepared in all the branches which they 
teach. The greatest need is in the grammar- 
schools, and for them the universities ought to 
make the first provision. Besides the advan- 
tage of establishing such a point of contact be- 
tween the universities and public schools, uni- 
versity participation will facilitate the intro- 
duction of new subjects where they will do 
most good. This is the principle of the three 
courses established in Cambridge, for training 
in geometry, geography, and experimental 
physics. 

The weekly exercise in geometry was attend- 
ed by fifty grammar-school teachers. Some 
work was required of the class, and the in- 
structors thought there should have been 
problems or other exercises in sufficient num- 
ber to constitute a substantial piece of work 
every week. The course showed the advan- 
tage of special training for teachers who have 
had nothing but a high -school training in 
mathematics. It has helped them to teach al- 
gebra and arithmetic as well as geometry ; it 
has widened their intellectual horizon. 

A subject of even greater importance is Eng- 
lish ; probably none so much needs the intelli- 
gent co-operation and assistance of the most 
"highly trained teachers in the country. The 



6o tSinivcteit^s lOartfcipation. 

public is demanding in the most unmistakable 
terms that children shall read something more 
than exercises or scrappy excerpts, and shall 
write clearly and vigorously. The selection of 
material, the succession of pieces, the methods 
of getting children to think about what they 
are reading — in all this teachers must have as- 
sistance or they will fall behind. English com- 
position is admirably fitted for university par- 
ticipation, because it can be conducted with 
written exercises and with valuable criticisms 
before the class. What the teachers need is not 
a set of composition subjects for their children, 
but ease and facility in expressing themselves, 
quickness to point out ways of improving style, 
and a knowledge of helpful methods and illustra- 
tions. If other languages are to be introduced 
into the grammar-schools, it is imperative that 
the teachers should have some sort of contact 
with experienced instructors in the languages ; 
but none of the ordinary means of training, ex- 
cept the summer schools, affords any sufficient 
preparation in either modern languages or 
Latin. Efforts have been made to meet this 
want by a Harvard course in English composi- 
tion. Like the other courses, this was free to 
Cambridge teachers, and open on payment of a 
fee to teachers from other places. There were 
weekly lectures on English literature and fifteen 
themes a year. For the correction of the latter 



IBnglf0b» 6 1 



the teachers paid a reader's fee of about nine 
dollars. The principal trouble with the course 
was the same as in some of the others where 
there was no laboratory exercise ; many of the 
teacher-pupils did not keep up the written work, 
in which lay the principal value of the course. 

Perhaps the set of subjects most suited to 
university participation are the strictly scien- 
tific. No one can really teach botany, zoology, 
or physiology, who has not had a practical 
training course, with illustrative exercises and 
laboratory work. The so-called scientific read- 
ing-books do not teach science. Kindergarten 
exercises instill observation ; but the cutting up 
of plants is in itself no more scientific, no more 
botanical, than the excision of the tails of the 
three blind mice was zoological. Columbia 
offers a general course in the teaching of science ; 
Harvard and the Institute of Technology have 
dealt intensively with the teaching of single sub- 
jects. The Cambridge school committee has 
adopted the principle of taking up one science 
in the grammar-schools, and pursuing it in a 
method as rigorous as the subject permits ; the 
subject chosen is experimental physics, and in 
some respects the university training school in 
that branch has been the most effective of the 
series. It was attended the first year by twenty-- 
two Cambridge teachers who were preparing to 
teach the subject in the following year ; a sec- 



62 lIlnfvetsitB iparttcipation, 

ond group of sixteen teachers came up in the 
second year. The advantages of the university 
connection were here especially displayed ; the 
excellent physical laboratory used for college 
courses was opened to teachers ; they came 
into personal relations with an experienced col- 
lege professor ; there was constant opportunity 
for discussion ; the teachers themselves were 
much interested. On the other side, the in- 
structor freely admits that he has learned much 
from this class as to the difficulties of his sub- 
ject and the best method of teaching it, and 
he has since worked out the results of the two 
years' courses in a text-book. 

A quite similar system was pursued in the 
Harvard course in geography, to which about 
sixty teachers came once a week to listen to a 
lecture. The trouble here was that, while the 
university maps and apparatus were available 
for the lectures, it was difficult to suggest simple 
apparatus which is cheap enough to be furnished 
to the schools ; but the work has been stimulat- 
ing and helpful ; the teachers have acquired a 
new view of their subject, and a large body of 
illustrations, and the instructor drew upon the 
experience gained from this connection with 
teachers in service ; he has since prepared a care- 
ful list of maps for school use, and another of 
lantern-slides illustrating geography. 

The course in botany offered by the uni- 



Sciences anD Ibietov^, 63 

versity was followed by about seventy teachers. 
It was strictly a working course, the director 
applying the whole amount appropriated by the 
university to the employment of six assistants, 
and a college laboratory being set apart on 
Saturday for this exercise. The teachers paid 
about three dollars each for the material, care- 
fully grown in advance, for their uses. The 
course has illuminated the subject for the teach- 
ers, and through them for the children whom 
they are now teaching. 

Another subject for university participation 
is history and civil government. Teachers need 
to be made aware of the possible improvements 
in the teaching of these neglected subjects, and 
especially in the use of material on what may be 
called the laboratory method. A good course 
of this kind ought to give to a teacher a fund of 
valuable material and illustration, and a train- 
ing in the teaching of history as a developing 
subject, rather than as a memory subject. The 
University of Pennsylvania and Columbia have 
both awakened to this necessity. The former 
has had a " Saturday Class " in American his- 
tory ; the latter a course on " methods of teach- 
ing history in secondary schools." 

Mathematical studies, English, other lan- 
guages, sciences, and history, are evidently the 
principal subjects which lend themselves to this 
method of treatment. To this list many edu- 



64 'Qlniver0lti2 partlcfpatfon. 

cators would probably add high-school studies 
— classics, algebra, chemistry, advanced physics, 
and other natural sciences, and others would 
add formal pedagogy. It must not be forgotten, 
however, that the first purpose of the univer- 
sity participation is to come to the rescue of 
the large bodies of helpless teachers in lower 
grades, the persons who have most opportunity 
and the least preparation for the improvement 
of the education of the country at large. High- 
school teachers are already fairly provided 
for, both in preliminary training and in present 
apparatus ; most of the teachers' courses now 
opened by colleges are intended for them ex- 
clusively. As for pedagogy, that is from the 
point of view of university participation only 
one subject out of many ; if teachers learn how 
to teach geography or English or physics, they 
are getting a pedagogic education. Pedagogy, 
as such, should follow, and not precede, the 
special training courses, so far as the teachers 
now in service are concerned. 

The methods to be pursued in these courses 
must depend in part upon the relations of 
place between the universities and the taught. 
Wherever possible, university participation in- 
struction should be given in the university 
buildings. This is not a mere question of con- 
venience to the teacher ; it puts the teachers 
and taught into a different relation ; it empha- 



jflRetboDs, 65 



§izes the fact that it is university instruction of 
a special kind ; and it is absolutely essential in 
laboratory, museum, or library courses. 

In many parts of the country the schools 
which need the help are not in the immediate 
vicinity of the colleges. In such cases Ma- 
homet may go with some subjects to the moun- 
tain. History, English composition, literature, 
and possibly geography, may be taught away 
from university surroundings, provided they 
are taught in that rigorous scientific method 
which is the essential characteristic of univer- 
sity instruction. 

Wherever the classes meet, they should be 
conducted by regular university teachers of 
experience. The work cannot be delegated to 
assistants, for a principal advantage is the con- 
tact with the mind of the trained instructor. 
Experience shows that such men are more like- 
ly to appreciate the difficulties of teachers and 
of pupils than are men less familiar with the 
subjects and less accustomed to deal with a 
variety of minds. To secure the services of 
such teachers is difficult, because they are al- 
ways busy. This, however, is not so much a 
question of time as of expense : if the university 
has a sufficient teaching force, one man in each 
department can always be found for such work ; 
if college professors can, with great loss of time 
and energy, travel many miles to deliver lect- 
5 



66 lantversitB iparticlpation, 

ures in university extension, why may not 
these same men be secured for university par- 
ticipation ? Besides the formal lectures of the 
instructor, he will naturally draw up a syllabus 
or list of topics such as is common in college 
or university extension courses. Perhaps the 
greatest aid that can be rendered by the in- 
structor is to suggest illustrations suitable for 
class use ; the expert in any subject ought to 
have at command a great fund of instances, and 
even of anecdotes, which would interest chil- 
dren. It may be said that such illustrations are 
frequently to be found in books ; there is, how- 
ever, a peculiar freshness in getting them at 
first-hand, and a distinct convenience in having 
them recorded in the note-books along with the 
general suggestions upon the question under 
discussion. For instance, in a lecture in the 
Cambridge course on geometry, the instructor 
suggested four different problems in measur- 
ing the height of buildings and the width of 
streams, and showed how each could practi- 
cably be solved with very simple and inexpen- 
sive apparatus. In the course on geography, the 
lecturer illustrated the stopping of the water- 
courses by new streams working into the side 
or upper end of a valle}^, by a little sketch of a 
river now flowing into Lake Erie, of which 
the branches all point away from the mouth ; 
and which consequently once ran the other 



iniU0trat(on6. 67 



way. The instructor may also aid the teacher 
by recommending simple and inexpensive ap- 
paratus and appliances, such as can easily be 
made by teachers or by school boys and girls 
for their own use. In other subjects, such as 
history and literature, may come in the sugges- 
tion of interesting methods for drawing out the 
children's inventive faculties. It has been ob- 
jected that university teachers are not compe- 
tent to judge what can or can not be presented 
to children or be understood by them. Pos- 
sibly university instructors are a little less 
sceptical about the intelligence of children than 
other teachers; but experience shows that a 
discussion between two people who look at 
the subject from two different points of view, 
is likely to be helpful to them both, and that 
the result will assist the children. One sugges- 
tion which has not been tested, but which seems 
rather promising, is that occasionally the in- 
structor should have before him an actual class 
of average children, in order to show how he 
would present a difficult point, and to elicit 
suggestions and discussions. 

How far the instructors can do anything out- 
side their lecture-rooms and laboratories is not 
yet plain. One of the founders of the Cam- 
bridge courses feels confident that he could en- 
force his instruction if he could follow it into the 
class-room and there make suggestions. This 



68 iSinivcteit^ Iparticipation, 

is, of course, impossible with large systems of 
schools, because of the time it would take ; and 
most school boards also would feel a natural 
hesitation in permitting a person not under 
their control to make official visits. A part of 
the service of the instructor might well be to 
visit teachers' meetings; or he could lay out 
work for such meetings and see that it was 
properly carried on. 

An essential feature of university participa- 
tion is to get a return in work and thought 
from the teachers themselves. The lack of 
such a reaction was felt by the instructors in 
geometry and geography in the Cambridge 
courses. It was not so with the laboratory 
course in physics; there the instructor was, 
with reason, much delighted with the alertness 
of mind and the disposition to do something 
which he found in the teachers who came to 
him. They were selected from about twice 
their number of applicants, and they included 
for the most part teachers whose previous suc- 
cess has caused their advancement to the high- 
est grammar grades. The enthusiasm and 
freshness on the part of the teachers in that 
course suggests the importance of embodying 
laboratory methods of some kind in all the sub- 
jects thus undertaken. In such a case it would 
be desirable to apply some kind of final test at 
the end of a course, or rather it would be pos- 



XLcncbctB* XlClorft. ^9 



sible for an instructor to base on the laboratory 
work of each teacher a judgment as to whether 
that teacher ought to be certified as prepared 
to teach the subject which she had been pur- 
suing. 

Some provision must be made for the ex- 
pense of such an undertaking, but it is no more 
difficult than to raise the money for university 
extension. The cost of such courses, if carried 
on in the regular habitat of the instructor, is 
much less than might generally be supposed. 
Radcliffe College for women is manned entirely 
by instructors and professors of Harvard Col- 
lege ; and the uniform cost of instruction in that 
institution is three hundred dollars for a course 
of sixty exercises, with whatever collateral read- 
ing of papers and so on may be necessary, and 
four hundred dollars for a course of ninety ex- 
ercises. There is no difficulty in finding uni- 
versity teachers, young and old, who are will- 
ing to undertake that work, partly for the 
money and partly out of public spirit. 

A year's course for busy teachers ought not 
to require each week more than one exercise 
of two hours ; that is, three hundred dollars or 
four hundred dollars a year ought to furnish 
one such course for a number varying from 
twenty to one hundred, according to the nat- 
ure of the subject. In a class of sixty a fee 
of five dollars each would sometimes pay for 



70 lanfversfts Ipartlclpatfon. 

the instruction ; in some cities, therefore, such 
courses might be provided simply by the sub- 
scriptions of those who participate. Fees tend 
to defeat a main purpose of the system, viz., 
the taking of one course after another for a 
series of years. The difficulty has been seri- 
ously felt by university extension, which has 
encountered the indisposition of the same peo- 
ple to pay year after year for the same general 
kind of instruction. Another method would 
be for school boards to appropriate a sum suf- 
ficient to compensate the colleges for carrying 
on the work. This solution seems difficult in 
Cambridge ; the city is liberal with its schools 
and desires to improve them ; the university 
is inclined to co-operate ; but no money could 
be appropriated that would seem to be in any 
way a subsidy for the college. In some places 
such a scheme seems practicable, especially if 
the instructors come from a distance. In the 
city of Pawtucket, R. I., for example, such a 
system has been organized., 

A third alternative, the payment for such 
courses by private subscription, is only a tem- 
porary resource. If the system is to be estab- 
lished in any permanent form, it must rest on 
the public spirit and generosity of the univer- 
sities. They must do what they do for their 
regular students. " I think the best way," 
writes the president of a famous university 



Brpenae, 71 



south of New York, '' would be to provide such 
courses at the expense of the universities, and 
to draw in fees for tuition from those who have 
the advantages of the plan." This is not sim- 
ply a case of noblesse oblige; there are certain 
very practical advantages which the univer- 
sities would gain from such a plan. They 
establish relations with other systems of edu- 
cation than their own; they put to a more 
extended use the apparatus given them in trust 
for the advancement of learning ; by improv- 
ing the schools they help to broaden the whole 
community, and eventually to increase the 
number of college students. They are thus to 
become powerful agents to improve the in- 
struction in the lower schools, especially in 
languages, history, and science, so that the 
college and university work may begin on a 
higher plane. Where high - school teachers 
have the proper opportunities and are willing 
to organize, they may do the same kind of 
work for the teachers in lower grades ; but for 
the high -school teachers themselves, and for 
large cities, the work must be done by the 
universities or not at all. 

It is plain that this system can be most ad- 
vantageously applied only in the immediate 
neighborhood of large cities; but a study of 
the relation between the colleges and the cities 
of the country shows that of the fifty largest 



72 IHnfrersfts Ipartfcipation, 

cities, thirty -eight are within easy reach of a 
college or university ; in those cities there are 
1,300,000 children at school and 26,200 teachers. 
That is, one-ninth of the children and one-tenth 
of the teachers in the country could be aided 
by university participation. It seems a scheme 
which promises large returns to the country 
against a moderate outlay of money, time, and 
strength. 

That the universities are willing to do their 
part in this matter is proven by many answers 
from the presidents of universities in or near 
cities to letters of inquiry ; not one is unfavor- 
able; several refer to successful experience. 
The school authorities must do their part also. 
It is not enough that one teacher here and 
there should avail herself of these opportuni- 
ties. School boards must insist that no teacher 
shall be employed who remains a poor teacher 
on any subject where she has had the oppor- 
tunity to perfect herself. Those who already 
have had a proper education would naturally 
be exempt; the teacher who is too apathetic 
to improve herself ought not to be retained. 
In Cambridge the school committee have re- 
quired teachers of specified grades to attend 
the training courses in geography, botany, or 
geometry. The matter might be permanently 
arranged very simply by any school board 
which should arrange a suitable set of courses 



Bpplfcatfon, 73 



with a neighboring university, and then should 
vote that after one year it would employ no 
teacher who had not a satisfactory normal 
training, let us say in geography; at the end 
of another year, to employ no teacher who had 
not had a satisfactory training also in English • 
and^ so on till every teacher had shown her 
ability to teach every subject which she under- 
took. 

In spite of the many practical difficulties 
stated, and many others undiscovered by the 
writer, the advantages of university participa- 
tion are obvious. For the schools, the system 
will facilitate, and in some cases alone will 
make possible, the remodelling of the curricu- 
lum ; and it will add daily to the interest and 
efficiency of the teaching. To the teachers, 
the system promises a relief from the endless 
monotony of ordinary class exercises, and gives 
them a broader and surer hold upon what they 
are doing. The normal schools will be stimu- 
lated if it be found that their graduates are, in 
the power of teaching the ordinary subjects, 
inferior to those who have had the training 
courses. To the colleges, the system will be 
of great advantage; for the instructors will 
gain the clearness of understanding which 
arises from meeting difficulties suggested to 
the minds of others ; and preparation for col- 
lege will eventually be improved. To parents, 



74 IHnlversftB ipartfclpatlon, 

the advantage will be the better training of the 
children and the saving which will come from 
the harmonious working together of the dif- 
ferent departments of education. To the chil- 
dren, it will be one of the instruments in build- 
ing up character. To the country, it will aid 
in the advance of learning, for it will help the 
study of each subject from the beginning to 
the highest point of specialization. 



IV. 

Ibow to Stttby 1bl0tor^* 



" Good wine needs no bush," and if there 
were need to urge the reading of history it 
would be a proof that history is too dull and 
unattractive to be read. We read history all 
the time, not only in text-books and formal his- 
tories, but in the magazines and the newspa- 
pers ; history is philologically almost exactly 
the same word as story, and the world is as 
determined now as it was in the time of the 
Athenians " to hear and tell some new thing." 

History in a more formal sense has been in- 
troduced into many schools of every grade 
throughout the Union, and there has sprung up 
a literature of advice, suggestion, and illustra- 
tion on proper ways of teaching the subject. 
Hence, wherever there is a good school and a 
good teacher, history is sure to be taught. 

Nevertheless reading history and teaching 
history are neither of them necessarily study- 
ing history. What we learn from the atmos- 
phere of newspaper gossip in which we are all 
(75) 



7^ 1bow to Stu&i2 Ibtstor^, 

enveloped, even what we gain in the school- 
room, lacks the essential quality of study, be- 
cause it usually means the acceptance of what- 
ever reaches us from the first comer, the first 
book, or the first teacher. Learning by heart 
tables of dynasties, presidents, or battles, is not 
studying history. Brer Rabbit was always 
"studyinV' but study with him meant, not com- 
mitting the statement of a text-book, but put- 
ting his mind upon the problem before him, 
considering how far he could depend upon the 
historical statements made to him by Brer Fox, 
and soberly discounting the oratorical flights of 
Brer Turkey Buzzard. The study of history, 
then, means the attempt to form for one's self an 
independent judgment upon historical events, 
a judgment based upon the most trustworthy 
accounts within reach. 

In the study of history the first essential is 
that we should have before us not general his- 
tory but some definite subject. Well does the 
writer remember his struggle to learn Free- 
man's Outlines, and ill does he remember any 
part of those Outlines, except the distinction 
between orthodox Christianity and Arianism — 
and just what that distinction was has escaped 
him at this moment. Such a book as Lavisse's 
Political History of Europe is interesting, sug- 
gestive, and broadening, but it only attempts 
to describe tendencies and general results. For 



IKHbat ITS StuOs? ^7 

purposes of study, a general history is no more 
possible than a general text-book on science, 
or a general treatise on mathematics, or a gen- 
eral history of all literature. 

What subjects shall we choose, especially if 
we have no guiding teacher or sagacious friend 
to lay out a course for us ? There used to be a 
current idea that any book answered the pur- 
pose ; that Rollings Ancient History and Jo- 
sephus were intellectual nutriment even for 
boys and girls. There is a malicious Italian 
story about a condemned criminal who Avas re- 
prieved on condition that he should read all of 
Guicciardini's Wars of the Italian Republics ; 
at the end of the eighth volume he returned to 
the executioner and asked to have the original 
sentence completed. Many things that have 
happened even to Italian republics are not 
worth studying. On the other hand, the world 
has been full of great crises when men came 
forward and performed splendid deeds, made 
new civilizations, and built up commonwealths. 
Let us choose such great periods. 

What are the criteria of selection ? In the 
first place, since the field is so enormous, both 
in the period of time covered and in the number 
of nations which have had interesting history, 
we surely may find a few countries which by 
their central situation, their importance as lead- 
ing powers, their influence on later civilization 



{ 



78 fbovo to StuDs 1bt0t(5ri2. 

deserve the attention of all ages. Let us choose, 
therefore, countries which have nurtured strik- 
ing, strong, characteristic, and original men 
such as Themistocles, Sulla, Charlemagne, Lu- 
ther, Richelieu, Cromwell, Bismarck, and An- 
drew Jackson. Let us especially choose coun- 
tries which have raised men who summed up 
in themselves for the time being the nation's 
life, men such as Pericles, Augustus, Hilde- 
brand, William of Orange, William Pitt, and 
Abraham Lincoln. Let us choose out of uni- 
versal history the nebulas of human events in 
which sparkle the stars of human character. 

In the next place let us avoid wars and ru- 
mors of wars. Of all subjects upon which the 
human intellect can be employed military 
y history is one of the least profitable. To follow 
campaigns on the map teaches military science, 
but it does not teach history. To know the 
names of battles and of commanders and the 
numbers of their troops is to follow the method 
of a worthy but wrong-headed teacher of art in 
a young ladies' seminary in Massachusetts. 

" What is this picture ? " she asked at an ex- 
amination. 

" It is a picture of the Apollo Belvidere.'* 

" Where is that statue ? " 

" In Rome." 

" In what part of Rome ? '* 

" In the Vatican.'* 



Choice of Subjects. 79 

" In what part of the Vatican ? " 

" In the Cortile del Belvedere, second corner 
cabinet." 

" That will do." 

Yet a knowledge of the ground plan of a mu- 
seum is no more useless to the ordinary student 
than an acquaintance with the evolutions of a 
battle ; both are for experts only, except in so 
far as either puts us in the place of artists, or of 
the commanders of troops, and enables us to 
share their spirit and to sympathize with their 
purpose. Hence let us choose no period sim- 
ply because it is studded with wars. 

Yet, on the other hand, it is the plea of his- 
torical writers that times of peace are so dull 
and uneventful that the chronicle of a happy, 
contented, and advancing people has little to 
attract the attention ; while wars mark the con- 
flict of great moral principles, the establishment 
of a new order of things. Some of them do so ; 
but what of the interminable annals of blood in 
India, wars in which one bad throne or dynasty 
simply succeeds another ? The victories of Ma- 
rius over the Cimbri and Teutoni were decisive 
because they beat back the tide of barbarian im- 
migration for four hundred years ; the battle of 
Tours was decisive because the great organiza- 
tion of Christendom stopped the advance of 
the great Moslem organization ; and Waterloo 
was decisive simply because it permitted the 



8o ibow to StuDis 1bl9ton?» 

nations of Europe each to work out its own 
salvation without the interference of France. 
The interest of the student is not in the day of 
battle, but in the days after, when the effect of 
the military struggle becomes evident. 

The next essential is that we should study the 
history of people who thought. The ancient 
Germans were such good military men that 
they finally beat the Romans, but their history 
is of less account to the student than that of 
long-peaceful Switzerland. Above all let us 
study the history of nations that thought about 
government and law, because those nations 
have contributed to that stock of political ideas 
out of which our own government is built. 

Perhaps we may now choose the history of 
half a dozen nations, during limited periods 
when the minds of men were most active. 
First of these in time, purpose, and importance 
is the history of Greece, during the splendor 
of Athens. The struggle of the Greeks against 
Persia is one of the noblest of all assertions of 
freedom against despotism, and has inspired 
hundreds of armies to stand resolute against 
great numbers. It is a period abounding in 
great as well as in despicable characters, a peri- 
od full of romantic inspiration, prolific in politi- 
cal inventions, glowing with literature and art ; 
a period which has had something to teach to 
every western nation. Then comes the counter 



Selected Mpocbe. 8i 

epoch of Rome the conqueror — that is, Rome 
from the beginning of the Punic Wars to the 
widest extension of the Empire. It is a time 
full of the overmastering power of organiza- 
tion, of combination, of the repression of ex- 
cesses, of well-knit administrative discipline, of 
experiments in government, successful and un- 
successful. Next, chronologically, comes the 
period of the Crusades ; though the military 
result was the defeat and almost the disgrace 
of the Christians, they restored to Europe an 
interest in literature and science, and began 
for the second time to unite the histories of 
Europe and Asia. 

The next era especially worthy of study is 
the movement known in Italy as the Renais- 
sance — the rebirth of literature, art, and philos- 
ophy. No period in the world's history more 
abounds in magnificent characters, such as Dan- 
te, Petrarch, Cosmo di Medici, and Can Grande 
della Scala. Of equal importance as a study 
of human character, and more interesting to 
Americans on account of its immediate effect 
on our forefathers, was the Reformation, the 
counterpart of the Renaissance. It was the re- 
assertion of the idea that people's thoughts are 
not to be cut and dried for them by earthly 
rulers, or by spiritual potentates. While the 
English Reformation is to us the most in- 
teresting episode in that epoch, perhaps the 
6 



82 ibow to StuDs tbietot^. 

most instructive single period of English his- 
tory is the struggle with the Stuarts, during 
the whole of the seventeenth century. Here 
began to take form those mighty ideas of free 
representative government which are the great 
political force of the present age. In this cen- 
tury sparkle many of the greatest names in the 
history of the Anglo-Saxon race ; it is the 
time of Shakespeare and Bacon, of Milton and 
Cromwell, and of William the Third. French 
history is of particular interest because France 
has ever since the time of Charlemagne been 
a sort of nucleus of European politics and con- 
stitutional development. Out of that long, rich 
history the most absorbing period is that of 
the French Revolution and the Napoleonic 
wars, from 1789 to 181 5, during which the 
French experienced almost every form of gov- 
ernment known to man, from the despotism of 
a tyrant to the worse despotism of a conven- 
tion. 

Since the end of that crisis there have been 
two remarkable episodes in modern history. 
The first is the reconstitution of Europe, 
grouped about the unification of Germany. 
We do not realize that in ages to come the 
gathering together of three hundred mutually 
repellant German states into one nation, and of 
half a dozen Italian principalities into another, 
will be looked upon as one of the marvels of 



Ifntro^uctore 33ooft6, 83 

history ; nor that it has been accomplished by 
two of the greatest men of the last four cen- 
turies, Bismarck and Cavour. The other epi- 
sode comes closer home to us ; it is the estab- 
lishment of a free republic in America, the 
long-, slow-burning struggle against slavery, 
leaping into the flame of the Civil War, out of 
which a new nation has arisen with renewed 
power. 

Having selected the period, the next step is 
to find the material. First of all some brief 
books are necessary, to cover the whole ground 
in a summary fashion. There is now such a 
supply of " Series " and " Eras " and " Epochs," 
of little books systematically taking up the his- 
tory of particular countries, that on any inter- 
esting period a good " eye-opener " is readily 
to be found. It should be read, read carefully, 
and read more than once, so that the student 
may have in his mind the dimensions of his 
subject — but it is never to be memorized. 
Such a book corresponds to the architect's 
preliminary sketch. Then comes the process 
of broadening, the working out of the ground 
plan of the historical edifice. For this purpose 
the general student should choose such stand- 
ard works as are recommended by teachers, 
or by such guides to historical study as W. F. 
Allen's '' History Topics ; " C. K. Adams's " Man- 
ual of Historical Literature ; " Gordy and Twit- 



84 fbovo to StuDis Ibietot^. 

chell's " Manual," and B. A. Hinsdale's " How to 
Study and Teach History." William E. Foster's 
" References to the History of Presidential Ad- 
ministrations ; " Edward Channing's *' Guide to 
the Study of American History," and R. R. 
Bowker's " Reader's Guide," give lists of books 
on American history, with some criticism of 
their relative value. In the better brief books 
on any period will be found lists of classified 
authorities. One may read history in one 
author ; one can study history only by a com- 
parison of various authors. 

Just here comes in the value to the student 
of owning his books. There is no more useful 
adjunct to the study of history than a good, 
sharp lead-pencil, or red-ink pen, with which 
to annotate the margins of the volume that one 
is using. Very few books have a convenient 
apparatus of running headings and dates, and 
there is no better way of fixing attention than 
to put in over the page-headings the missing 
guide to the contents. An exercise still bet- 
ter, but which does not interfere with that just 
described, is to make out in one's own mind 
a logical analysis of the book as one goes on, 
and to write the headings of that analysis, 
point by point, in the margin. A third con- 
venient method is to indicate the author's 
thought by underlining the significant words 
in each paragraph. These three processes, 



iUse of :fi5ooft0. 85 



consistently combined, accustom the mind to 
search for the essential thought of the pages 
before it, and to put into brief and significant 
terms an abstract of that thought. Whenever 
the student has occasion to use the same vol- 
ume again, he will be surprised to find how the 
argument comes back to him through his own 
abstract. Again, one may enjoy in his own 
books that which would be a crime if committed 
on the book of another ; he may write down his 
reasons for agreement or disagreement with his 
author. In the Harvard College library are the 
volumes which Carlyle used in preparing his 
" Life of Cromwell," and nothing could be more 
humorously characteristic of the writer than 
some of the comments which he has scribbled 
on the margins of his pompous authorities : 
" It was long after ' this ' "— " Stuff ! " " Error " 
— " Never above 6." If you must use bor- 
rowed books, then let your attempt be to re- 
turn them as clean as they came, and to take 
whatever abstracts you can in a note-book of 
your own. The point of all this system is that 
by seeing, or trying to see, what is in the au- 
thor's mind, you furnish yourself with that con- 
densed outline around which historical knowl- 
edge must be built. 

To keep such an outline in view is an easy 
task, provided one uses only one or two paral- 
lel authorities ; but, as the student proceeds, 



86 ibow to StuDis Ibtstors* 

he begins to find that one book effaces another. 
The methods, the order, the proportions of one 
writer do not agree with those of the next; 
and the knowledge of men and events so labo- 
riously acquired begins to dissolve in the very 
multiplicity of facts. This is the time for the 
historical student to make up some sort of 
written topical outline of his subject. He now 
knows not only what is important and what is 
accidental, but he has also in his mind a theory 
of how facts and events fit together. He is in the 
position of the architect who has decided what 
he wishes to place on each floor of his build- 
ing ; the next step is to draw in the partitions 
so as to divide off each enclosure from its 
neighbor. There is but one way in which a 
large amount of historical knowledge may be 
co-ordinated, and that is by keeping a sort of 
table of contents of the whole subject in one's 
head and arranging one's material in that or- 
der. If such a system is adopted, each new 
important fact fits into its place as it comes ; 
and no matter how different the mode of treat- 
ment by a new book, the mind sifts out of it 
what is unfamiliar and assorts it according to 
its own system. Hence some kind of written 
topical arrangement is necessary, as one pro- 
ceeds from book to book. 

Of course much may be done by subdivision 
of labor ; in a class of bright people, all study- 



/iRaFifuQ an ©utllne, 87 

ing the same general subject together, one per- 
son may take up one phase of the subject, and 
another a different phase. For instance, on the 
French Revolution the first may take the rev- 
okitionary statesmen ; a second, the Conven- 
tion ; a third, the army ; a fourth, the navy ; 
and still another, the revolutionary societies. 
This means that an assignment is to be made 
as soon as all the co-workers have the general 
period in their minds ; then it becomes the 
duty of each member of the class to use all the 
available material upon his topic, and, so to 
speak, to sub-analyze that material until it be- 
comes clear to him. 

Long before the work has reached this stage, 
however, the necessity of taking written notes 
of some kind will become apparent. A very 
eminent American historian is accustomed to 
take his notes in a note-book just as they come. 
When the note-book is filled, he indexes it 
and begins a new one ; when a sufficient num- 
ber accumulate he indexes them all ; and at 
last account he had more than eight hundred 
such note-books in his collection. His is, after 
all, a cumbersome system ; it is quite as easy 
to take notes upon the most complicated sub- 
ject in such a form that they will index them- 
selves. Suppose that this eminent author in 
collecting material for his next volume — let us 
say on the War of 18 12 — should use separate 



88 ibow to Stut)^ Ibfstors* 

half-sheets of paper of uniform size and ruling. 
Upon the first half-sheet he notes an account 
of Hull's surrender, upon the second of Com- 
mander Rogers's first cruise, upon the next of 
the departure of Pinkney from England. Thus 
he goes on taking a fresh sheet for every fresh 
topic until he finally strikes a second reference 
upon Hull's surrender; the note on this point 
may be put upon the original sheet for that 
topic ; and thus the recurring accounts will 
each fall into their logical place, where they 
may be compared. When one half -sheet is 
full another may be begun ; when a sufficient 
number of half-sheets have accumulated to 
make it worth while to keep them separate, 
they may be laid together loosely within a 
whole sheet of the same size, upon the outside 
of which the general subject is stated. With a 
little practice it is not difficult when one meets 
a subject to find the sheet upon which that 
subject had previously been noted. As topics 
accumulate, a subdivision of each will suggest 
itself, and the sheets may be sorted and stowed 
away accordingly. Thus in the end the stu- 
dent has a bundle, not of disorganized memo- 
randa but of consecutive material. It is almost 
a book in itself ; it is divided into chapters, sec- 
tions, and even paragraphs ; and when the 
material for any literary work is collected the 
work is already half done. 



1Flote«ta?ifng an& Sources. 89 

The question of note-taking is perplexing at 
the best. Students usually take too many. 
They copy out long, exact quotations from 
books which are perfectly accessible, and 
which they could reach a second time if neces- 
sary. They do not know how to digest the 
author's statements and to reduce them to a 
brief form. If you are trying to get simply a 
good general idea of a period from the use of a 
small number of works, take notes in very brief 
form, with a view simply to comparing the 
statements and opinions of one writer with 
those of another, and at the same time of so 
arranging your notes that you may have a 
general view of the subject. 

Shall the student use sources ? Yes, if he has 
sources and has judgment. One may often get 
a more vivid and exact picture of an epoch by 
reading a few extracts from contemporaries than 
by going over a series of later writers. After 
one has digested a brief account of the Puritan 
Revolution and then has gone through Gardi- 
ner's careful and scholarly treatise, one would 
better read some of Oliver Cromwell's letters, a 
poem of Milton's, and Sir Harry Vane's opin- 
ions on government. It is very easy to over- 
do the comparison of standard writers ; but no 
historical study is complete without the ex- 
perience and flavor of original material which 
come from using sources ; and no ordinary stu- 



90 1bow to StuO^ 1bf6tor^, 

dent need expect to study such material care- 
fully enough to disagree seriously with his- 
torians like Gardiner, who have used all avail- 
able sources. 

In a word, the object of the historical stu- 
dent is to bring before his mind a picture of 
the main events and the spirit of the times 
which he studies. The first step is to get a 
general view from a brief book ; the second 
step is to enlarge it from more elaborate works, 
reading more than one, and to use some system 
of written notes logically arranged ; the final 
step is to read some of the contemporary 
writers. Having done these three things care- 
fully, the historical student carries away an 
impression of his period which will never be 
effaced. 



V. 

Ibow to Ueacb Iblstoti^ in Secon^av^ Schools* 



It is not many years since the question, how- 
is history taught in the United States ? could 
be answered in only one of two brief ways ; it 
was not taught at all ; or it was taught perfunc- 
torily from single text-books. A certain quan- 
tum of knowledge of affairs in the ancient world 
was imbibed by students of the classics ; some 
people, old and young, read history for the 
love of it ; an acquaintance with the past was 
thought desirable for the statesman ; only here 
and there a choice spirit taught his pupils, in 
school or college, what history actually meant. 
But the methods common, even in the most 
advanced classes, are illustrated by an experi- 
ence which a present professor of history in 
Harvard University enjoys telling. At his 
first recitation in history the tutor gave him 
his cue : ^' ^ The fleet of Callicratidas was now 
double that of Conon ' — proceed, sir." 

The attempt to make history interesting to, 
and comprehensible to, the ordinary reader 
(91) 



92 Zcachim of tfistot^. 

may be said to have begun in America with 
George Bancroft's work ; the study of history 
has been greatly stimulated since the Civil 
War, by the eager interest of the nation in its 
own life ; and it has been made possible by the 
multiplication of text-books and elaborate his- 
tories. No good college now graduates any 
student without some attempt to teach him 
history ; a great number of the secondary 
schools have taken up the subject; and it be- 
gins to appear even in the primary schools. 
Yet the precise end in view in most places is 
still indistinct; the methods are frequently 
crude and tentative ; and the equipment is 
poor. The object of this essay is therefore to 
examine and compare the systems of a number 
of schools, so as to discover what is actually 
going on. Proceeding from the information 
thus acquired, it might then be possible to 
suggest some directions in which the instruc- 
tion in history may tend, and some methods 
which may be helpful. 

Only the secondary schools will be consid- 
ered: The work of the colleges has been 
examined, and results published, under the 
direction of the Commissioner of Education; 
while the primary schools are too numerous 
and the work too little systematized as yet to 
allow much useful discussion. The point of 
view of the writer is that of one who knows the 



aiSa0f0 of tbe JEe^a^, 93 



secondary schools in some degree by their 
effects ; who sees that the graduates of the fit- 
ting schools are often badly prepared or unpre- 
pared in history ; and who would like to receive 
them into his classes with some clear element- 
ary knowledge, with good habits of reading, 
and with practice in finding things out for 
themselves. Some important elements in the 
problem require a more intimate personal ac- 
quaintance with the schools, their needs, and 
their limitations. 

The immediate sources of information are the 
answers received from about ninety principals 
or teachers of high and preparatory schools ; 
and also a hundred and seventy-five statements 
made by students of history in college. The 
schools are representative because they are 
scattered over the United States, and because 
they are of every degree of importance ; but it 
is presumable that a large number of those who 
failed to answer had little to tell, and that the 
amount and quality of instruction in history 
described in these reports is much above the 
average. In the same way the circular to stu- 
dents was laid only before those who had suffi- 
cient interest in the subject to elect a course in 
history in college. 

Three-fourths of the schools reporting, con- 
fine their instruction in history to a period 
ranging from one to two years ; a very few 



94 ^cachlm of Iblstori?. 

carry it on during four, five, or even six years. 
The variation in the number of hours of weekly 
exercises has no special significance ; the com- 
mon practice is, three, four, or five hours or 
" periods." The combination of years and 
hours gives, however, widely varying results. 
The least total is forty exercises ; the greatest 
total, eight hundred ; as nearly as an average 
can be determined, it is about two hundred and 
forty hours, or three hours a week for two 
years. 

Through the circular the attempt was made 
to discover the proportion of time spent upon 
ancient, modern, and American periods. The 
results show a great variety of practice. An- 
cient history is taught in some form in nearly 
every school, usually as a part of the prepara- 
tion for college ; on the average it takes up 
one-third of the time devoted to history. A 
little more attention, on the whole, is given to 
modern European history. American history is 
omitted entirely in half the schools, and, where 
taught, occupies less that half the time allotted 
to history. It will be seen that the total hours 
devoted to history vary from one-third to one- 
twentieth of the school recitation hours ; the 
average in the schools reporting would seem to 
be about one-tenth. 

More important than these questions of time 
and division is the arrangement of work and 



^fme anD Brran^ement 95 

the order of courses. Here are two schedules ; 
the first is that of a large city high-school : 

"First Year: i. Lectures on current ques- 
tions — one hour per week throughout the entire 
school year. 

2. Historical Biography. ) Two hours per 

3. Greek History. v week throughout 

4. Roman History. ) the entire year. 

" Second Year : History of England — four 
hours per week throughout one-half of the 
school year. 

" Third Year : General European History 
— four hours per week throughout the entire 
school year." 

In the high school of a New England city 
of 50,000 people the following excellent course 
is prescribed : 

" In his first year the pupil is obliged to have 
Ancient History five hours per week for the 
school year of forty weeks. 

" In his second year he may have Mediaeval 
History and that of the United States for the 
same time, viz. : five hours a week for forty 
weeks. Mediaeval for first half ; United States 
second half of year. 

In his third year his option is English his- 
tory just as above. 

" In his fourth, if in the college course, he 
must take Greek and Roman History as be- 
fore." 

Several different aims usually influence the 
minds of teachers of history : to teach the pupil 



9^ tTeacbfng of Ibistori?* 

to know something ; to teach the pupil to 
think ; and to enable the pupil to pass the en- 
trance examination of some college. Public 
sentiment and many Boards of Education de- 
mand facts; and parents expect "a good fit." 
It is therefore very encouraging to find so 
clear a perception of the essential in history as 
is shown by the following extract from the an- 
swer of the Principal of the high-school in a 
large Western city : 

" In general history the attempt is made to 
give the pupil some notion of the ' flow ' of his- 
tory, its ' unity ' as well as diversity, to bring 
out correspondences in different countries and 
times, and to knit the whole firmly together by 
constant cross-references and review questions. 
Special attention is directed to the experiences 
of older nations on questions of present im- 
portance in this country. In examining con- 
flicting views the pupil is encouraged in the 
attempt to place himself for the time being in 
the position of the author discussed. In these 
classes the things mostly aimed at are local 
color, perspective, breadth of view." 

An examination of the returns show that few 
schools have the facilities, the teachers, or the 
spirit for very much more than is required by 
the demands of the colleges. " The present 
temptation," says one principal, " is to * read 
up ' on history, simply because it admits of be- 
ing done. No amount of that carries a boy 



Illeual iflftetbo^s. 97 



through Quadratics or Homer," and he com- 
plains bitterly of " the coat of many colors that 
the New England colleges force us to draw- 
on." 

Whatever the aim of a school, it is of little 
importance unless it is aided by adequate meth- 
ods; and there are discernible three distinct 
types of instruction : the lecture system ; the 
text-book system ; and the topical system. 
The first may be quietly passed over ; for not 
more than one-ninth of the schools have regu- 
lar required lectures, and only exceptional 
teachers with unusual pupils can make it prof- 
itable in secondary grades. In others there 
are ** supplementary talks ; " or, to take a stu- 
dent's definition : " the teacher told stories." 
The text-book method is by far the most fre- 
quent. In fully half the cases no other instruc- 
tion is attempted ; only five out of a hundred 
and seventy-five students report that it was 
never used where they were prepared for col- 
lege. In some schools, however, where the 
topical method is not employed, there are ad- 
juncts to the recitation, designed to make the 
exercises more interesting. Such are " oral 
reviews," reports of the news of the day, dis- 
cussions, or the reading of selections in class. 

Since text-books are the basis of the work, 
let us look into the books. They are almost 
as numerous as teachers. In the ninety schools 
7 



qS XLcachim of Ibistorig. 

reporting, seventy-six different works are used. 
There are thirteen text-books on general his- 
tory, eighteen on ancient history, nine on the 
mediaeval and modern periods, eighteen on 
England, and thirteen on the United States. 
Only fourteen of the books in the list are used 
by more than four schools each. 

Perhaps a fourth of the reporting schools 
have put into operation some form of topical 
recitation ; it has taken root but slowly, since 
a hundred and forty-six students out of a hun- 
dred and sixty-seven had never experienced it. 
The general method is well shown in the fol- 
lowing description of the work in the high- 
school of a small city in New York : 

" In the General History classes the follow- 
ing plan has been tried with satisfactory re- 
sults : 

*' On Wednesday the lesson in the text-book 
for the entire Aveek is given. Subjects are se- 
lected, covering the week's work, and one as- 
signed to each pupil. During the week any 
questions asked by pupils are noted, and to 
these the teacher adds any that may occur to 
him. In this way quite a list of ' curious que- 
ries ' will be made each week. Monday, the 
topics which were assigned the previous Wed- 
nesday are discussed by the pupils, each per- 
son being usually allowed all the time he or 
she chooses to take. Sometimes, however, a 
* one minute ' or * two minutes ' address is re- 
quired. 



ZcxUtoo\\0 an& ipro^tammee. 99 

" Tuesday, teacher and pupils bring selec- 
tions bearing upon topics of the week, all extra 
reading being introduced on that day. 

" Wednesday the time is devoted entirely to 
the text-book — pupils are expected to be thor- 
oughly prepared on that portion assigned the 
previous Wednesday. 

" Thursday the questions collected during 
the week are answered as far as pupils have 
been able to look up answers. All are anxious 
to have as many as possible and no compulsion 
is necessary. If no pupil has found answers to 
one or more than one of the questions, the 
teacher makes some suggestion as to sources 
of information, and questions are left for the 
next Thursday. Current events are also dis- 
cussed on this day. 

*' Friday is the pupil's day, and each one pre- 
pares a list of ten questions that he considers 
a fair test for members of the class. (Pupils 
may select questions from any portion of his- 
tory that has been studied by the class.) As 
the teacher designates two pupils, they rise 
and one asks his questions of the other, stating 
at the close what per cent, have been correctly 
answered. Two other pupils are then named 
and the same course pursued." 

The advantage of the topical method is 
twofold ; it trains the student to investigate 
and to think ; and it encourages good habits of 
reading. The efficiency of the system depends 
upon the abundance and accessibility of books. 
Not many schools can equal the library of 
eighteen thousand volumes in a Central New 



loo tTeacbfng of Ibtstor^* 

York high-school ; and few happy principals 
" can think of no necessary book wanting ; " 
still, about one-third of them appear to have 
creditable collections of books within their own 
walls ; more than another third possess a few 
standard encyclopaedias and histories. Eight 
schools depend wholly on public libraries, and 
others makes those libraries add to their own 
scantier resources. At a few places there is a 
small circulating library, made up by purchase 
or by contribution. 

On the question how faithfully the books of 
reference are employed, there is a difference of 
opinion between teachers and students. Fifty 
schools out of ninety report a good use ; only 
twenty-seven students out of a hundred and 
sixty-nine had noticed that in their schools the 
books were well used ; twice as many had no- 
ticed the contrary ; one had used them *' only 
for amusement," and eighty-three had had 
either no books or no impressions. It appears 
proven that the reference libraries of the 
schools are in a great many cases too small or 
too uninteresting, or that pupils are not 
properly trained in their use. 

Home reading in many cases doubtless sup- 
plies the lack. The taste for historical reading 
is easily implanted in the minds of thoughtful 
young people ; about half the students who 
made out a statement had read at least one 



XX6C Of ^Boofta. loi 



standard history. The favorites are Pres- 
cott, Macaulay, Irving, Green, Bancroft, and — 
as the writer regrets to record — Abbott. About 
a sixth have read juvenile histories, historical 
novels, and various other books ; nearly a 
third appear to have read, or at least to have 
remembered, absolutely nothing outside of 
their text-books. The proportion of readers is 
the more remarkable, because only about a 
sixth of the whole report that outside reading 
was required in their school. 

In addition to oral recitations and the prep- 
aration of topics, about one-third of the 
teachers require written exercises. In class, 
the usual form is the preparation of written 
reviews, either on the lesson or on a subject 
studied outside. Occasionally teachers expect 
notes to be taken. Out of class, pupils prepare 
abstracts of paragraphs or of specified chap- 
ters ; they write theses ; they arrange gene- 
alogical tables ; they make out outlines, sum- 
maries, and analyses. Two schools report de- 
bates as part of their exercises ; and one has 
established a prize examination on the knowl- 
edge of American history gained by outside 
study. 

Geography, the twin sister of history, has 
as yet but a cold reception in the historical 
family. Only about half the schools make it 
what it should be — an essential and integral 



102 treacbing of Ibistor^. 

part of the study of every period. To be sure 
nearly half the pupils have had some geography ; 
but it is very doubtful whether they have 
really studied anything beyond the classical 
atlas. A few enthusiastic teachers begin the 
study of each country with a description of its 
geography, or even adopt helpful devices such 
as this : 

" Attention is called to geography by ques- 
tions as to location of places mentioned in 
the lesson. Failure is met by drawing a map 
of the State containing the point in question, 
locating the special place, and several others. 
Pupils are required to draw State groups — 
for instance, the Massachusetts Group. This 
means to draw Massachusetts, with all the 
adjoining States, in one group, so as to learn 
its relative position, and to draw Massachusetts, 
the central State, in detail — the capital, chief 
places of note — mountains, rivers, in short, 
anything the teacher sees fit to call for. Draw- 
ing on the blackboard is required in some 
cases." 

A fair proportion of schools have an ap- 
paratus of wall maps and atlases ; the more 
energetic teachers oblige pupils to locate 
places and to trace movements. Perhaps one- 
fourth of the schools require map-drawing of 
some sort, although the greater part of it is 
probably topographical rather than historical. 
A few use blank outlines, to be filled in by the 



1bf0torfcal Geograpb^, 103 



pupil ; or ask him to draw maps from memory 
upon the board. To judge from personal ex- 
perience with many undergraduate students, 
the two things which the candidate for en- 
trance to college does not know are : how to 
add figures ; and how to remember or represent 
geographical facts. Historical geography is 
still almost undeveloped in the fitting schools. 
Here the doctrinaire may justly criticise the 
practical teacher, even without knowing all his 
difficulties. Whether the pupil is being pre- 
pared for college or for business or for home 
life, his education is of little value if it leaves 
no definite impression upon his mind. The 
colleges do not expect that those who come to 
them shall have a wide historical training, or 
shall remember a great many facts ; they have 
a right to expect that certain general historical 
principles may be taken for granted. One of 
the questions asked of the students was : " Did 
your previous study of history help you to un- 
derstand better your college courses?" The 
answers may be tabulated as follows: 



'' Yes, decidedly," , 

" Very much," . 

"Much," . 

" Yes," 

" Partially," ] [ 

** In general training," 

" In general knowledge from reading," 7 



7 
10 

2 
42 
12 

4 



104 ZTeacbfUQ of Ibfstor^* 

"Somewhat," . . . . 
" Hope so," or " think so/* 
" Not much," .... 
" Very little," .... 

"No," 

"Not a bit," . . • . 



14 
4 

7 
II 

37 
13 



Total, 170 

Let us sum up the evidence from the state- 
ments of teachers and graduates of the fitting 
schools. In many schools little or no history 
is taught ; where taught, the best methods are 
not always employed ; where good methods 
prevail there is often a lack of books and ap- 
paratus ; where there are the best facilities pu- 
pils sometimes neglect them. 

If the previous criticism be well founded, 
historical instruction in the secondary school 
is not in a satisfactory state; pupils who are 
sent to college come indifferently prepared, 
and those whose education ends with the high- 
school are not well grounded in the elements 
of history. The defects are in part beyond 
the power of teachers, principals, or even 
school boards. Suitable text-books are lack- 
ing ; trained teachers are not to be had, or are 
overworked ; there are no funds for additional 
instruction, or for libraries and apparatus. 
Other defects are simply those of arrange- 
ment, and the efficiency of the work may be 



iPresent /iftetboDs CrftfclseD* 105 



increased by a little thought on the part of 
the principals. A more serious trouble is, in 
many cases, a wrong aim on the part of the 
teacher ; he does less than he might do with 
the material and means in his hands. The at- 
tempt will, therefore, be made to point out 
some methods which require no considerable 
increase of expense, and which may be ap- 
plied by any competent teacher in any good 
school. 

In general, the schools give less time to his- 
tory than its importance justifies. If the work 
be undertaken at all, pupils ought to be sent out 
with a permanent impression of the history of 
at least one country, and with some facility in 
finding things out for themselves. The re- 
quirements of the colleges are certainly no 
criterion of what ought to be taught. Three 
hours a week, throughout the four years' sec- 
ondary course, is perhaps as much as can be 
expected, and is sufficient for a thorough and 
practical grounding in history. 

How to divide the allotted time among the 
various periods and countries is a perplexing 
question. Ancient and mediasval history have 
a peculiar value, in that they present to the 
mind the workings of human nature under cir- 
cumstances unlike our own ; there is a further 
practical advantage in the greater abundance 
of good text-books. On the other hand, there 



io6 Zcacbim of 1bf0tori2. 

is a stimulus in the close connection of modern 
history with present events. If a great deal of 
time be devoted to the subject, ancient, med- 
iaeval, modern European, English, and Ameri- 
can history may each be taken up separately. 
Where the time is limited, it is a clear waste to 
devote it to small " universal " histories, unless 
accompanied by enlarging comment. It is far 
better to study in a larger way the history of 
one or two countries : the United States and 
England are first in importance to Americans ; 
then come Greece, Germany, France, Rome. 

There are two well-known systems of ar- 
rangement of historical courses : the first is 
that of chronological succession, beginning 
with the most remote and ending Avith the 
most recent ; the second is the German 
method of working from within outward ; 
the child begins with his own town or city, 
then studies his district, then his State, then 
Germany, and perhaps finally arrives at the 
asteroids and the United States. The difficulty 
with the latter method is the danger that the 
pupil will leave off before he has learned how 
much greater is the world than his horizon ; 
and in this country there are few good ele- 
mentary books on local history. To begin 
with ancient history, on the other hand, means 
that a certain number of pupils never will 
reach the history of their own country. Per- 



Selecting Subjects* 107 

haps the best principle is to begin with that pe- 
riod which is most likely to be interesting and 
important, and then to follow immediately with 
the history of some country remote from the 
pupil's ken. In most cases the history of Eng- 
land or the United States is the best intro- 
duction. Where literature or art is systemat- 
ically studied, a double interest may be created 
by making these studies run parallel with the 
history. 

Let us now pass to the every-day work of 
the class-room. In all historical teaching the 
first principle to fix in the mind of pupil and 
teacher is the importance of accurately estab- 
lished facts : and the second principle is the 
worthlessness of detached incidents. From the 
beginning, it should be understood that a 
knowledge of facts is not a knowledge of his- 
tory ; that the text-book simply selects and 
groups a very small number of actual historical 
events, and that the essential thing is to know 
how facts are related, and what they mean 
when viewed together. There are, therefore, 
several co-related aims which the teacher must 
keep constantly in mind. He must teach facts ; 
and for that purpose the text-book and recita- 
tion system is best adapted. He must show 
the relations between them; and lectures and 
talks will bring out those relations. He must 
accustom the pupil to assemble material for 



io8 XLcacbim of Ibfstor^, 

himself and to test it ; the topical method af- 
fords the necessary training. He must lead 
the student to think and judge a little for him- 
self ; the preparation of topics and outside 
reading will induce some degree of such inde- 
pendent thought. 

The recitation system requires for its success 
a good text-book. The old-fashioned " school 
history," with its mass of unimportant detail, 
overloaded with military history, has rather 
given place to new books of two types. On 
the one hand we have the various " Young 
Folks* Histories," in which the "story" is de- 
veloped. On the other hand is the class of 
excellent school histories which include the 
social and economic side as well as the politi- 
cal. The topical method has its special helps 
in the " Hand-books," " Pathfinders," " Topics 
and References," " Guides," and " Outlines," 
just now coming forward. For pupils who are 
likely to go farther, the " story " books are best 
for a beginning ; for those who have but the 
one opportunity a more compendious book 
is desirable. In every case good and accurate 
maps are much more serviceable than illustra- 
tions, and the pictures should represent only 
real things and persons. The value of a book 
is much increased if it contain good review 
questions, especially if they group into new 
combinations the facts that have been acquired. 



IRecttatfons, 109 



What is learned from the text-book ought in 
most cases to be confirmed in recitations, less 
as a test of faithfulness than as a supplement. 
The actual memorizing should be confined as 
narrowly as possible. A few things must be 
learned by heart and when forgotten learned 
again, to serve as a framework about which 
to group one's knowledge ; without knowing 
the succession of dynasties, or of sovereigns, 
or of presidents, or the dates of the great con- 
stitutional events, the pupil's stock of informa- 
tion will have no more form than a jelly-fish. 
But these few necessary facts ought to be 
clearly defined as the sole memorizing ex- 
pected. The story must be told in the pupil's 
own words. His interest may be stimulated 
in a variety of ways. Actual discussion or 
quiz is hardly to be expected from those who 
have only the foundation of the text-book, but 
the utmost freedom of questions should be 
encouraged. Photographs and pictures may 
be brought in. The report on the news of the 
day, common in some city schools, may often 
be made to hinge upon the lesson in hand. 
The reading of illustrative extracts, of other 
accounts of the same affair, or of a succeeding 
lesson, will add interest. In a word, the recita- 
tion ought to give the pupil something that 
does not appear in the book. 

Nor should the teacher be content with di- 



no treacbtng of Ibistor^. 

rection. It is his special duty to bring out the 
cause and effect of events : and it must be done 
by his words and not by the pupil's. The prep- 
aration is a severe task for a hard-worked 
teacher ; but if he does no more than to read 
one or two extended accounts of the ground of 
the day's lesson, he will have a fund of com- 
ment and illustration. Perhaps the ideal of 
teaching would be to make the text-book only 
the connection and groundwork for a series of 
simple talks with quiz and discussion. It is 
possible only with conscientious students : and 
the necessary control of the note-books adds a 
great deal of labor. In advanced classes, bright 
pupils may sometimes be trusted under careful 
direction and supervision to prepare a talk for 
their fellows. A very happy effect may often 
be produced by introducing some outsider into 
the class exercise, or at another hour, who shall 
give a prepared lecture on some subject illus- 
trating the field of study ; in an}^ town large 
enough to sustain a good high-school may al- 
ways be found intelligent people able and glad 
to say something effective. This system has 
been admirably marked out in the highly suc- 
cessful Old South courses of lectures for young 
people, given in Boston every summer to au- 
diences of hundreds of children and older 
people. The important thing to remember in 
talking or lecturing is that the lecturer ought 



Ibow to IRouse ITnterest m 

not to add an assortment of new and bewilder- 
ing facts, but to set in order and explain the 
principles governing those already acquired. 

One of the most learned historians in New 
England is accustomed to say that he no longer 
tries to remember any particular fact, but only 
where to find it recorded. American schools 
and even American colleges have been slow to 
recognize that the ability to find out what one 
wants is as essential a part of historical training 
as the ability to remember facts and to under- 
stand the relations between them. The topical 
method is an attempt to give instruction in 
research ; and at the same time it is often a 
superior method of presenting facts. Its ad- 
vantages are that it teaches the pupil to ex- 
amine and use books ; it throws upon him an 
educating responsibility of choice ; it leads him 
to select the important from the unimportant ; 
it obliges him to compare and collate authori- 
ties ; it gives him the pleasing sense of dis- 
covery. Nor does it require large libraries, or 
a great expenditure of the teacher's time. 

In one form, the topical system supersedes 
text-book recitation ; the whole field is divided 
into successive topics which are prepared by 
all pupils ; and the recitation is held on the sub- 
ject and not in any book. But these themes 
may also be used as adjuncts or occasional exer- 
cises. In fact the great advantage of the sys- 



112 ZctiMm ot Ibfstori?, 

tern is that it can be applied by each teacher to 
the circumstances of his own school. In select- 
ing topics care should be taken to make them 
cover only one simple subject : questions should 
be avoided about which little definite informa- 
tion is to be had ; to a child's mind a negative 
result is a failure. Biography lends itself 
easily to this method ; any number of subjects 
of about equal difficulty may be found, and it is 
easier to secure a lucid, well-arranged report 
than on other questions. Where the topics are 
numerous, the teacher owes it to his pupils 
to give them a good outfit of specific direc- 
tions and exact references : for an occasional 
theme it is an excellent plan to turn a pupil 
loose into a library ; but where he is expected 
to learn something valuable about his subject 
in a short time, he must not be discouraged by 
the mass of books : he must have his clew. 

Where the topics are only occasional the fol- 
lowing system may be found useful. Let the 
topics be given out in groups ; a set of geograph- 
ical subjects ; a set of biographical subjects ; 
a set of narratives ; a set of military subjects ; 
and so on ; out of each group, set for each pupil 
his own individual topic. When the group is 
given out, a circular of directions may be issued 
or put on the board meeting the questions most 
likely to be asked and the difficulties most 
likely to arise, and prescribing a form in which 



tropfcal /Iftetbo^ ii3 



the answers are to be returned. Pupils should 
then be put on their own resources : as their 
topics are all different, they cannot use each 
other's work ; as they are all of the same kind, 
a few books will suffice for their sources, and 
the teacher can more easily control the work. 
Some provision should be made for giving a 
little help to those who have, after honest 
effort, failed to find authorities. The return of 
the work in the precise outward form required 
should be insisted upon, because it is of such 
vast importance to be able to put information 
into a shape useful to another person : and the 
labor of handling the papers is thus greatly re- 
duced. There is plenty of room for originality 
in the choice of books and the selection and 
arrangement of facts. Great care must be 
taken to prevent the pupil from simply repro- 
ducinof what he finds in one or several books. 
From the very outset, the pupil should be 
taught always to append a brief bibliographical 
note, setting forth the sources of his informa- 
tion and giving exact references to volume and 
page. The selection of the best papers to be 
read in class may be a reward for diligence and 
especially for orderly arrangement and clear 
statement. With classes of any considerable 
size, the specific references should include sev- 
eral common books on each topic, so as to 
make sure that the pupil has the opportunity of 
8 



114 tTeacbing of 1bf0tor^. 

using at least one. Both teacher and pupil 
will find useful some of the printed topical out- 
lines mentioned in the bibliographical note at 
the end of this essay. 

The topical system, and good teaching of 
any sort, is dependent on books of reference. 
Every school ought to have a library, conven- 
ient, and accessible every day and all day. It 
need not be large ; in most places, if the school 
funds are insufficient, contributions of books or 
money may make up a small collection. Pupils 
should be encouraged to buy books, and it is 
worth while to put into their hands a brief list 
of the volumes most desirable for them to own. 
The library should include at least the follow- 
ing works : 

A good atlas of modern geography (Andree's 
or Stieler's are the best, and furnish most for 
the money) ; 

An historical atlas; Putzger is cheap and 
good; 

A standard encyclopaedia, biographical dic- 
tionary, and gazetteer ; 

Lalor's Cyclopaedia of Political Science ; 

Ploetz's Epitome of Universal History (for 
chronology) ; 

One or two classified library catalogues (for 
bibliography) : the most useful are the Brook- 
lyn, Milwaukee, Peabody, Boston Athenaeum ; 

Collections of historical texts like Poore's 



If^eterence :(Booh0» 115 



Charters and Constitutions, and Preston's Docu- 
ments illustrative of American History, and the 
various series of Leaflets. 

The standard histories of each period and 
country studied ; 

Sets of briefer compendious histories like the 
Epoch Series and the Story of the Nations se- 
ries ; 

Some of the handier biographies ; such as the 
American Statesmen series, Great Command- 
ers, etc. ; 

A few selected historical novels ; 

Good illustrated books, such as are likely to 
awaken interest. 

If books are scanty, they may sometimes 
be borrowed for a few days or weeks, and a 
working collection in some particular topic 
may thus be made. Where there is a library, 
it should be drilled into pupils' minds that they 
do not learn history unless they use it. 

If a taste for historical literature is thus 
formed, it is likely that pupils will read for 
themselves at home. It is easy to suggest, in 
class, books that illustrate the subject under 
discussion. It may even be desirable to make 
out and distribute lists of general readings, 
parallel with the subject. In some schools 
pupils are encouraged to give the substance of 
their outside readings in recitation. The free 
use of books may further be encouraged by 



II 6 tTeacbfns of Ibfetorg, 

clubs and debating societies, and by public dis- 
cussions. 

From the beginning of historical instruction 
to the end, geography should be made an in- 
tegral part of the work. No teacher should ex- 
pect his pupils to understand history without 
making clear to them the physical features of 
the country described. Fortunately there are 
good physical wall maps of most countries ; and 
excellent and cheap little relief maps begin to 
appear. When we come to historical geography, 
there is a dearth of good atlases and maps. 
Whatever atlas may be used, the teacher ought 
to supplement it by a set of historical maps of 
his own manufacture. By using outline maps, 
which may be had on scales large and small for 
most important countries, and by utilizing the 
power stored in the minds and fingers of his 
pupils, the teacher may, in a few years, have a 
set of unique maps. No topical work is more 
interesting to the student than the preparation 
of maps. Elaborate drawing-rooms and expen- 
sive supplies are not necessary ; a few cheap 
water-colors and brushes, and a roll of outline 
maps or of stout paper, are all that is nec- 
essary ; and geography will thus come to have 
a new meaning by practical exercise. 

The proper teaching of history in the sec- 
ondary schools calls for no new, complex, or 
expensive, methods ; there ought to be a good 



1bl6torfcal (Beograpb^. 117 



text-book for a basis of fact: a good teacher 
to explain relations ; a good library as a source 
of material ; and good practice in the use of the 
library, as a training to the judgment. 

Bibliographical NoTE.—The titles of many 
books, pamphlets, and articles on the teaching 
of history may be found in Hall and Mansfield's 
Hints toward a Select and Descriptive Bibliography 
of Education. (Boston : D. C. Heath & Co., 1886.) 
These gentlemen have added a few words of 
instructive comment to most of the titles. Re- 
cent articles on the subject are to be found in 
The Academy for June, 1886, in the Moderator 
for May, 1887, and in Education for June, 1887. 
The latter is by Dr. Francis N. Thorpe, who 
has also reprinted from Education a pamphlet 
on American History in A7nerican Schools^ Col- 
leges, and Universities. Hints on historical 
study and historical reading may be found in 
the Old South Leaflets and Old North Studies in 
History, prepared by Mr. Edwin D. Mead, in 
connection with the free popular lectures 
which he has directed ; there are brief hints in 
Mr. George L. Fox's Study of Politics in Unity 
Clubs and Classes. (Chicago : Colegrove Book 
Co., 1885.) President G. Stanley Hall has also 
edited a book on Methods of Teaching History. 
(Boston: D. C. Heath & Co., 1885.) Many of 
the topical outlines contain suggestions. 



ii8 ^eacbtng of Ibistori^. 

The most elaborate discussion of historical 
study and teaching is the invaluable treatise 
by Professor B. A. Hinsdale : How to Study and 
Teach History. (New York, Appletons, 1894.) 
In 1893 appeared the well-known Report of the 
Committee of Teit to the National Educational 
Association. It contains the Report on History, 
Civil Government, and Political Economy, which 
is a systematic little treatise on the arrange- 
ment of historical courses in schools, and the 
methods applicable. 

The following works, containing lists of 
topics, in most cases with references appended, 
have come to the notice of the writer. 

Charles K. Adams : in his Manual of His- 
torical Literature. New York : Harper & 
Brothers, 1882. 

Charles K. Adams : Questions and Notes on 
the Constitutional History of England. Ann 
Arbor : Sheehan & Co., 1879. 

John G. Allen : Topical Studies in American 
History. Rochester : Scrantom, Wetmore & 
Co., 1885. 

William F. Allen : History Topics for the Use 
of High Schools and Colleges. Boston: D. C. 
Heath & Co., 1886. 

Henry L. Boltwood : Topical Outline of Gen- 
eral History. Chicago: George Sherwood & 
Co. 

Edward Channing and Albert Bushnell Hart: 
Guide to the Study of American History, Boston : 
Ginn & Co., 1895. 



C^opfcal ©utnnes. 119 



Hannah A. Davidson: Reference History of 
the United States for High Schools and Academies. 
Boston : Ginn & Co., 1892. 

[Charles F. Dunbar] : Economics VHI. [His- 
tory of Financial Legislation in the United States,'] 
Cambridge, printed by the University [1892]. 

[Charles F. Dunbar] : Topics and References 
m Political Economy IV. [Economic History of 
Europe and America since the Seven Years' War A 
Cambridge : William H. Wheeler, 1885. 

Charles S. Farrar : History of Sculpture, Paint- 
ing, and Architecturs. Chicago: Townsend 
MacCoun, 1881. 

William E. Foster : Monthly Reference Lists, 
Providence, R. L, Public Library. Providence, 
1881, 1883. [Out of print.] 

William E. Foster : References to the Constitu- 
tion of the United States. With an appendix. 
New York : Society for Political Education. 
(Economic Tracts No. 29), 1890. 

William E. Foster : References to the History 
of Presidential Administrations. New York : So- 
ciety for Political Education, 1885. 

Wilbur Fisk Gordy and Willis Ira Twitchell : 
A Pathfinder in America7i History. 2 pts. in I 
vol. Boston: Lee & Shepard, 1893. 

Albert Bushnell Hart: Suggestions on the 
Study of United States History and Government, 
prepared for the use of Students in Harvard Uni- 
versity. Cambridge : Harvard University, 1893. 

J. W. Jenks: Practical Economic Questions. 
Albany : University of the State of New York. 
1893. 

Henry Matson : References for Literary Work- 
ers. Chicago: A. C. McClurg & Co., 1892. 

Martin L. Smith : Brief Compend of the His- 



I20 tleacblng of 1bf0tor^. 

tory of the United States. Boston and New 
York: Leach, Shewell, and Sanborn, 1886. 

Edwin E. Sparks : Topical Reference Lists in 
American History^ with Introductory Lists in 
E^iglish Constitutional History. Columbus, Ohio, 
A. H. Smythe, 1893. 

[Frank W. Taussig : Topics and References in 
Economics VI.'] Tariff Legislation in the United 
States. Cambridge: Harvard University, 1892. 

Frank W. Taussig : Topics and References in 
Economics V. Railways in the Uiited States. 
Cambridge: Harvard University [1893]. 

Francis Newton Thorpe : Outline of the Prin- 
ciples of Government in the United States. Phila- 
delphia, 1893. 

George A. Williams : Topics and References 
in A merican History. Syracuse : C. W. Bardeen, 
1886. 

The list price of these books ranges from 
twenty-five cents to one dollar ; any of them 
might be had in quantities for school use at a 
considerable reduction. 

The following books will be found of great 
assistance in selecting a reference library, or 
filling up gaps in one already formed. 

Lyman Abbott : Hints for Home Reading. 
New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1880. 

Osmund Airy : Books on English History. 
London : Simpkins, Marshall & Co., 1886. 

American Library Association : Catalog of the 
*^A. L. A." Library. Washington Bureau ot 
Education [No. 20], 1893. 



m^B to Selecttom 121 

H. Courthope Bowen : Descriptive Catalogue 
of Historical Novels a7td Tales. London : Edward 
Stanford, 1882. 

R. R. Bowker and George lies : The Readers' 
Guide in Economic, Social, and Political Science. 
New York : Society for Political Education, 
1891. 

Lynds E. Jones: The Best Reading, Second 
Series, Priced a7id Catalogue Bibliography {^Cur- 
rent Literature onfy.] New York : G. P. Put- 
nam's Sons, 1882. 

Charles H. Moore : What to Read and Hozv to 
Read. New York : D. Appleton & Co., 1875. 

Frederic B. Perkins : The Best Reading. New 
York : G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1877. 

Noah Porter: Books and Reading. New 
York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1881. 

I. A. Spencer: Course of English Reading, 
New York : James Miller, 1873. 

William G. Sumner, W. E. Foster and others: 
Political Economy and Political Science. A 
Priced and Classified List of Books. First and 
second Series. Society for Political Educa- 
tion. New York: 1881,1882. 

G. A. F. Van Rhyn : What and How to Read. 
New York : D. Appleton & Co., 1875. 

Justin Winsor : Narrative and Critical His- 
tory of America. Boston : Houghton, Mifflin & 
Co. 

The publishers' prices of American books 
now in print may very easily be found in Ley- 
poldt's American Catalogue, New York (3 vols.). 
New York, 1880-1892. 



VI. 

Zbc Status ot Htbletics in Hmetlcan 
Colleges* 



One of the popular delusions about colleges 
is the notion that college students are a race 
apart ; that they have temptations quite differ- 
rent from and more numerous than those met 
by other young men ; that they have different 
amusements, different standards — in a word, a 
different human nature. Those who live among 
students know that they are, in the main, very 
like their twin brothers at home or in business: 
they are not much wiser, and are as prone to 
do absurd things ; on the other hand, they have 
more leisure, more command of their time, a 
\ wider range of interest, and a tickling sense of 
I belonging to a guild of learning ; so that, on the 
' whole, they are more likely than other young 
men to avoid bad or vicious habits. 

The same principle applies in athletics as in 
more important things. College athletes are 
not a peculiar genus of the homo juvenis ; they 
are very like other strong young men. College 

(122) 



(Benu0 ''StuDens/' 123 

athletic clubs are governed by the same rules 
and principles as other amateur clubs. Yet 
there are some reasons why the interest in such 
matters is sharper where colleges are con- 
cerned, why abuses are more apt to creep in, 
and why attention should be directed more 
carefully to the manner in which college ath- 
letics are conducted. 

The enormous and perhaps disproportioned 
public interest in college sports is made evi- 
dent several times a year by the items and 
squibs of the daily press ; and this is an inter- 
est which has grown up within the last thirty 
years. The enjoyment of sports is as old as 
the toys of Egyptian children, or the ball-game 
of Nausicaa and her maids. 

St^atpr? ral 5' &p' eimi^ou . ■ . at S' irrl fiaKphv &vcrav. 
" With the ball they played,. . . . and mightily they 
shrieked." 

The contest of animal with animal, of men 
with animals, and still more of men with men, 
has excited Greek, Roman, and barbarian. 
There is no doubt that a stand-up fight between 
two trained men or bodies of men, whether 
fought with fists, rapiers, Winchester rifles, or 
army corps, or "interference" is the most ab- 
sorbing of human diversions. In modern ath- 
letic sports, however, the contest is not usually 
against a man's person ; our preference is still 



124 College Btbletlcs, 

for races and competitions rather than for set- 
tos. 

This milder and manlier form of sport is due 
to England. While German youths still exer- 
cised with a sword and American lads with 
a trotting-sulky, young Englishmen ran, rowed, 
played cricket, and revived foot-ball and tennis. 
The development in England has been due in 
part to the ancient customs of the people, 
in part to climate, in great part to the schools 
of that country. School-boys' sports have, 
during the past fifty years, been carried into 
the universities and into private life. 

To England, then, we owe the example fol- 
D lowed in our outdoor sports ; and in England 
I the practice has been brought under certain 
■'I generally accepted principles. In the first 
-place, no sport among gentlemen can be direct- 
ed against the life or limbs of an antagonist. 
To inflict bodily injury was the great object of 
the Greek boxer and the Roman gladiator. In 
modern days even in boxing to wound is to be 
av/kward. For better security, almost all ath- 
letic sports avoid personal contact ; players 
strike the ball, but not one another. 

To carry out the principle of avoiding bodily 
injuries, and to make the game more interest- 
ing, a second principle is applied : the sports 
are all hedged in by elaborate rules. Every 
complicated game, especially foot-ball, seems to 



Sport6 anO IRuIea, 125 



the uninitiated an elaborate system of how-not- 
to-do-it. Strength, fleetness, and agility are to 
be applied only in specified ways. Here is an 
example, taken from the Intercollegiate foot-ball 
rules : " A player may throw or pass the ball 
in any direction except toward opponent's 
goal." Yet the sole object of the game is some- 
how to move the ball precisely in the direction 
forbidden, by throw or pass. The basis of the 
sport is always the tacit assumption that the 
game is between gentlemen who wish to win, 
but who accept and observe the limitations set 
by the rules. The principle that an umpire 
shall be provided has been established, but the 
practice is intended only to meet the case of 
a gentlemanly disagreement. Only under the 
intense competition of the last ten years has it 
been found necessary to provide double um- 
pires, and to give summary powers of punish- 
ment where a player wilfully breaks rules ; 
of late in the hard-fought contests of foot-ball 
a third judge, the " linesman," has been found 
necessary. The necessity itself shows that the 
standard of sport has fallen ; that a professional 
spirit has crept in. 

What is a professional ? He is defined and set 
apart by the third great principle of modern 
sport. A sharp line is drawn between those 
who take up sport for their own pleasure and 
those who practise it for money. Here is the 



126 College Btbletics. 

statement of the distinction laid down in the 
rules of the Amateur Athletic Union of the 
United States which define an amateur : — 

" One who has not entered in an open com- 
petition ; or for either a stake, public or admis- 
sion money, or entrance fee ; or under a fic- 
titious name ; or has not competed with or 
against a professional for any prize or where 
admission fee is charged ; or who has not in- 
structed, pursued, or assisted in the pursuit of 
athletic exercises as a means of livelihood, or 
for gain or any emolument; or where member- 
ship of any athletic club of any kind was 
not brought about or does not continue be- 
cause of any mutual understanding, express or 
implied, whereby his becoming or continuing a 
member of such club would be of any pecun- 
iary benefit to him whatever, direct or indirect; 
and who shall in other and all respects conform 
to the rules and regulations of this organiza- 
tion." 

For so rigid a rule there are abundant rea- 
sons. A man who plays from a love of sport 
prefers not to compete with a man who has 
gained superior skill by making his sport an 
occupation. A gentleman has no reason for 
concealing his name. If a man's success in his 
calling depends upon his winning, or if his live- 
lihood is at stake, he is more apt to break or to 
strain rules ; and the experience of the world 
has shown that one who receives money for 



TlClbat !5 a iprotessfonalT 127 

winning a contest may sometimes, by the offer 
of a larger sum, be induced to lose. Contests of 
professionals, therefore, are not so sure to be 
carried through on the merits of the competi- 
tors. Owing to this element of trickery, pro- 
fessional sports offer a field for betting and for 
other forms of gambling. There are hundreds 
of perfectly honest professionals, but in accept- 
ing money for their services they give up the 
element of personal pleasure, and change their 
sport into a task. 

In America, boat-racing and games of ball 
are as old as boyhood, rivers, and town com- 
mons, but in the colleges and outside they 
were very simple and unorganized school-boy 
sports till about thirty years ago. Regular 
teams began in boating, and there was a race 
between Harvard and Yale in 1852. In 1858, 
the present president of Harvard University 
was a member of the famous Harvard crew 
which brought the first six-oared shell in ahead 
of a rival Boston boat. 

The Civil War gave a singular impetus to 
field sports of all kinds. Perhaps the boys in 
blue brought home a love of fresh air and ex- 
ercise from their marches and bivouacs ; per- 
haps the German turnvereine taught Ameri- 
cans the use of their muscles ; perhaps gentle 
croquet led to more active sports. In 1863 
came the first organized games of intercolle- 



128 College Btbletics, 

giate base-ball. The sport spread throughout 
the country, and the college teams contended 
on equal, sometimes on superior terms, with the 
mighty and forgotten Lowells, Peconics, and 
Redstockings. The Canadians taught us foot- 
ball and lacrosse about 1877. Lawn tennis and 
bicycling came in a little later. Amateur rec- 
ords in track athletics began to be taken about 
1875. 

For the conduct of these sports there are 
numerous permanent and recognized amateur 
organizations. In all the large cities athletic 
clubs have begun to spring up, with expensive 
houses and apparatus ; but the chief seat of 
amateur sport is in the colleges. Here are as- 
semblages of young men having unusual con- 
trol over their own time ; here is a strong feel- 
ing of esprit de corps ; here, out of the many 
players offering themselves, a first-rate team 
may easily be formed. Not one in twenty of 
the spectators at a professional base-ball game 
knows any of the players personally, or ever 
himself handles the bat ; while in the colleges 
the athletic spirit is greatly stimulated by the 
fact that the whole body of students, and often 
of professors, feel a personal interest in the 
players. College authorities acknowledge, will- 
ingly or unwillingly, that athletic sports must 
be allowed and even encouraged, partly be- 
cause of the sentiment that physical exercise 



Bmateur ©r9anf3ation0, 129 

is essential for the most efficient use of the 
mind ; and in the colleges are usually the best 
facilities for exercise as well as contest. No 
large institution of learning is now considered 
complete without a good gymnasium and some 
instruction in field sports ; the college athletic 
associations are more numerous and important 
than other amateur organizations. In the col- 
leges, therefore, the growth and effect of ath- 
letics are more clearly discernible than else- 
where. 

The first distinct result of athletics, as seen 
in academic groves, is a considerable increase 
in the average of bodily strength. The popu- 
lar caricature of the college student no longer 
represents the stoop-shouldered, long-haired 
grind, but a person of impossible biceps and 
rudimentary brains. As a fact, the most popu- 
lar man in any college class to-day is usually a 
good student who can do something in athletics 
better than anybody else. The effect of this 
accepted standard of complete manliness is seen 
on men who never take part in athletic con- 
tests. The bodily vigor and health of students 
in the colleges have visibly risen in twenty 
years ; the variety of exercise is greater ; a 
larger number take exercise. Experienced di- 
rectors and trainers apply scientific methods of 
developing the body. The Director of the 
Hemenway Gymnasium states, as the result of 

9 



130 College Btbletics. 

more than four thousand measurements since 
1879, that he has now a record of at least forty 
men in Harvard University, each of whom is 
stronger than was the strongest man in 1880. 
Of course, there is a tendency to admire mus- 
cle and strength for themselves instead of as a 
means of health or enjoyment, but the physi- 
cal results of athletic sports are highly bene- 
ficial. 

An equally striking change is the great de- 
velopment of skill in athletics. The famous 
base-ball teams of the sixties could not now 
make a run against a good nine ; the records in 
athletics are constantly being broken. This 
skill is gained, however, at the cost of in- 
creased expenditure of time. Rowing men 
must settle down to their work in December, 
if they hope to win in July. Captains of teams 
spend more and more thought on selecting and 
placing players, on training, on planning cam- 
paigns. Hence, college teams far surpass all 
other amateurs, and are but little inferior to 
the most skilful professionals. The inevitable 
result is that, to the participants, the element 
of sport is fast disappearing. It is very agree- 
able to be recognized as a '^ star player" and 
to travel with a team ; but any one who 
watches a great contest must admit that it is 
" sport " only for the excited spectators ; the 
participants find both practice and match hard, 



BUcmtb an^ SMI 131 



unremitting work. As the Dean of Harvard 
College in his report of 1893 says of the fresh- 
man : " If he does not surrender himself to foot- 
ball body and soul, he is abused for treating so 
serious a pursuit as if it were play." To sup- 
pose that the labor discourages men from try- 
ing for the teams is a mistake. Where one 
man gets on, ten try ; where ten try, twenty 
play " for the fun of the thing ; " where twenty 
play occasionally, a hundred are influenced to 
keep up some regular exercise. The standard 
of skill required for enjoyment in a " scrub " 
game has not been raised. Nevertheless, the 
great matches, especially in foot-ball, are com- 
ing to have the interest of gladiatorial con- 
tests ; players are not there to pass a pleasant 
afternoon or to show their skill, but to beat. " It 
is magnificent, but it is — war." 

Such elaborate contests cannot be carried on 
without great preparation and expense. In 
addition to gymnasium trainers, paid by the 
college authorities, many teams have coaches, 
often professionals. Another great source of 
expense is the training-tables ; the board often 
costs double the ordinary rate, and the differ- 
ence — sometimes the whole — is paid by the 
management. Whenever a team travels, it 
makes up a little array of players, managers, 
and attendants, whose expenses are paid by the 
organization. Men so solicitous to win, spare 



132 College Btbletfce. 

no money that will insure greater comfort. 
The incidental expenses for such organizations 
are sometimes appalling: uniforms, accoutre- 
ments, the travelling expenses of managers and 
delegates, the keeping of grounds in order — 
these are but a part of the items. In the year 
1893 for a single campaign lasting about seven 
weeks, the Harvard Foot-ball Association had 
paid out $16,238.86, or an average of $700 for 
every actual player ; and Yale expended $16,- 
652.43. The same organizations received re- 
spectively $23,500 and $29,000, and the total re- 
ceipts for athletics were $51,000 and $67,000. 
To turn over and judiciously to expend sums 
so considerable might perhaps give the finan- 
cial officers of athletic associations good busi- 
ness training ; but the money has usually been 
handled carelessly and spent lavishly. Here is 
a verbatim transcript of an account rendered 
by the treasurer of a college organization a 
few years ago : 

RECEIPTS. 

Subscriptions, season tickets, and 

other sources .... $2,917 69 
Gate receipts .... 3,291 74 

$6,209 43 



IRu^imentars ^finances. 



133 



EXPENDITURES. 




Uniforms 


$320 50 


Yale-Amherst trip 


371 45 


Brown-Princeton . 


318 36 


New Haven (exhibition) 


190 06 


New York (Yale game) 


410 42 


Umpires .... 


100 00 


Printing, advertising, and sundries 3,443 94 




$5,155 n 


Balance in Bank . 


1,053 71 



$6,209 43 



One of the most vexatious things about col- 
lege athletics is the india-rubber inertia which 
makes it difficult to induce any treasurer or 
manager to keep full and lucid accounts and to 
take vouchers, and which sums up in "sundries" 
all the items that can no longer be remembered. 
Not very long ago, a perfectly honest young 
fellow, who had been asked to account for the 
magnitude of certain expenditures, explained 
in good faith that he was sure a particular bill 
had been thrice presented and paid ; but he 
had taken no receipts. 

As expense has increased, various moral 
evils have also grown. In all the older col- 
leges there are men who receive from home 
more money than they can put to good ac- 



134 CollCQC Btbletice. 

count for their personal expenses. Among 
that class betting grows up ; and the example 
is followed by a few who can less afford to 
lose. Betting on the field can be repressed by 
denying the use of grounds to the organiza- 
tion which permits it ; outside betting cannot 
be so controlled, and, as it takes the insidi- 
ous form of loyally "backing up the team," 
college public opinion is not sufficiently pro- 
nounced against the practice. Of late years, 
the custom has sprung up for bodies of college 
men to attend the theatres in the city where 
the great game has that day been played, and, 
by cheering, the waving of flags, and the inter- 
ruption of the performance, to make their pref- 
erences known. An excited, irresponsible state 
of mind seems to be induced by the tremendous 
competition of the greater sports, and to be 
more marked in the larger cities. 

A similar excitement manifests itself among 
the general public. The class-rooms at Cam- 
bridge and New Haven are nearly deserted on 
the day of the Yale-Harvard game at Spring- 
field. In New York, on Thanksgiving Day, 1893, 
there was paid for tickets to the Yale-Princeton 
game something like $25,000; and people in 
North Carolina mountain towns watched the 
telegraphic bulletin. Not even Patti can com- 
mand such audiences or take so much money 
for one performance. The newspapers reflect 



®ver=}Eixitement, 135 



the public impression that the whole interest of 
the colleges is absorbed in gladiatorial shows. 

To the evils just mentioned — irregularity, ex- 
travagance, excitement — there is added a still 
more serious evil, that of professionalism in col- 
lege athletics. The first approach to the pro- 
fessional spirit is found in the few young men 
who become at least enrolled students in order 
to develop and exhibit their skill as athletes. 
No college ought to have a place for such men. 
Occasionally they enter late, and disappear at 
the end of the athletic season ; more frequently 
they keep on, year after year, preventing other 
possible candidates from getting on the teams. 
Another phase of the disposition to make sport 
the end rather than the means is the pressure 
brought to bear on athletic men, who have 
graduated from college, to return and go upon 
teams. A further advance of the same spirit is 
seen in those students who accept from pro- 
prietors of summer hotels offers of board, and 
sometimes of incidental expenses, as an induce- 
ment to play during the season, and who thus 
come within the strict definition of profes- 
sionals. Another step is to receive money for 
occasional games ; and, finally, a considerable 
number of college students or graduates have 
accepted summer employment from profes- 
sional clubs, or have become teachers of ath- 
letics, and have thus separated themselves 



13^ College Btbletfca, 

from all amateur organizations within college 
or outside. Some of these men have, by their 
practice of a sport, acquired the means honor- 
ably to clear off college debts, or to provide for 
a professional education. No one can com- 
plain of their taking money for their skill ; but 
the moment a man begins to consider his skill 
a pecuniary resource the element of pleasure 
or of physical benefit — that is, the element of 
sport — disappears, and with it the purpose for 
which college athletics exist. 

Serious as are the evils connected with ath- 
letic sports, the writer believes that they are 
more than counterbalanced by the effect on the 
health of the students, and by the opportu- 
nity given for working off youthful spirits in 
a harmless way. Students themselves are 
sensible of the evils, but the expectation that 
they would in their own way find a remedy 
has not been realized. Students' organiza- 
tions are loose ; college generations are very 
short ; traditions quickly fade ; and there is 
lack of permanent policy. Captains usually 
serve a single year, and each feels like one of 
the ten Greek generals on his day of command. 
It is almost impossible for one college to ob- 
tain any reform without negotiation with other 
colleges, and diplomacy enough to secure an 
extradition treaty with Great Britain. Or- 
ganizations controlled by graduates do better 



meet) ot IReQulatiom ^37 



because they hold the undergraduates down to 
a definite policy. Hence those colleges in 
which the graduates have most influence, 
as Yale and Princeton, have proved upon the 
field and the river the excellence of graduate 
management. But the system is not very 
much freer than untrammelled control by un- 
dergraduates from the evils of extravagance, 
sharp practice, and wastefulness of time. The 
teams are better ; the morale of the sports is 
little improved. 

College faculties have been unwilling to take 
responsibility for athletic contests, and have 
from the first rather tolerated them as an 
unavoidable evil. They began by legislating 
against broken windows and broken heads. 
As it was evident that athletic sports were 
a vigorous growth, the next step was to make 
provisions for exercise by building new gym- 
nasiums. In some cases physical examinations 
have been required, as at Amherst, or exercise 
has been made obligatory, as at Cornell. 

Then came a time when it was discovered 
that students were making appointments which 
took them away from college work, or which 
unduly absorbed the attention of their fellows. 
A mild system of interference was adopted, 
with gentle rules as to time, place, and num- 
ber of games. Some colleges, notably Yale, 
have gone no further, preferring to leave the 



13^ College Btblettcs, 

whole matter to students. Additional legisla- 
tion has been difficult : any serious limitations 
have been resented by the students ; and the 
smaller colleges have hesitated to take any 
step which might keep students away. Most 
of the larger colleges, however, have appointed 
Faculty committees on athletics, whose office 
has been to exercise moral suasion over the 
students, and sometimes actually to regulate. 
There has been little interference with student 
organizations. Money has been collected by 
subscription, and it has been a delicate mat- 
ter to protect voluntary subscribers from 
their own agents ; but with the present large 
revenues from gate money a system of audit 
has been found indispensable. In some col- 
leges it is exercised by graduate committees. 
At Yale, Harvard, and Princeton by strenuous 
exertion, the organizations have been brought 
to agree to the appointment of a graduate 
treasurer, and to the deposit of surpluses aris- 
ing from gate money, to be used for general 
athletic purposes. 

The evils incident to the keen competition of 
intercollegiate athletics have received little 
checks from individual faculties. The trouble 
is, of course, that any restriction put upon a 
team is a handicap, unless applied to its com- 
petitors. Half a dozen years ago, therefore, 
Harvard proposed a system of general regula- 



3f acuity 1Re6tdctfon0. 139 

tion by the authorities of all the principal col- 
leges ; but it was found impossible to get an 
agreement. For a time Harvard forbade her 
teams to play against professionals. That re- 
striction was withdrawn, as tending to keep up 
an irritation between students and Faculty ; 
since every defeat was ascribed to the want of 
practice with professionals. 

The futility of the restriction was shown by 
the fact that in the face of it the professional 
spirit steadily grew at Harvard and elsewhere. 
Evasion of the rules became more common ; 
men were brought into the colleges who had 
no serious purpose of study ; the behavior of 
men on the field was rough and sometimes 
coarse. The governing boards began to take 
alarm, and the Harvard Overseers, in the spring 
of 1888, came almost to the resolution to pro- 
hibit intercollegiate contests. At this point a 
committee of the Faculty made an investiga- 
tion, and reported that "intercollegiate con- 
tests stimulate athletics, stimulate general 
exercise, and thus favorably affect the health 
and moral tone of the university." They sug- 
gested a mixed committee of members from the 
Faculty, graduates, and undergraduates, with 
adequate powers. That committee was ap- 
pointed in 1888, and has formulated a policy of 
regulation. 

The difficulties of restriction have already 



HO CollcQC mhlcticQ. 

been set forth. Since the principal evils of 
athletics are those of excess rather than of in- 
herent wrong, they are hard to regulate by 
statute. In many cases, they arise from a neg- 
lect by the students to look after the details of 
their own contests, and such neglect cannot be 
supplemented by supervision. Busy faculties 
have neither the time nor the inclination to 
form and hold a consistent policy in regard to 
athletics. It is felt that athletic sports are only 
a very incidental and subsidiary part of college 
life, and that control of them requires the time 
and interest of professors who are better em- 
ployed in teaching ; and hence that they should 
either be unrestricted or wholly prohibited. 
Such is the argument of those who advocate 
the prohibition of intercollegiate contests. It 
seems to furnish an easy solution to say, " Let 
the boys attend to their duties." 

To solve the question in this off-hand manner 
is impossible. If there were no athletic clubs 
or athletic young men outside the colleges, 
perhaps the matter might be one for academic 
discipline ; if intercollegiate contests were less 
attractive to students and their friends, to 
graduates and men interested in the colleges, 
they might be relegated to the place they oc- 
cupied twenty years ago, and again become 
simply an agreeable diversion for half-holidays 
and vacations. If athletics had not many dis- 



IProbfbltlon 2)lfRcult, 141 

tinctly bracing effects on the physical and mor- 
al tone of young men, the system of contests 
might be treated as an evil per se. If there were 
not at bottom a healthy moral sentiment among 
the students, opposed to professionalism and 
kindred evils, the governing boards might at- 
tempt to supply an artificial conscience. No 
votes of the faculty or other governing boards 
can permanently put an end to intercollegiate 
athletic contests at the present day, because 
nine-tenths of the students and at least seven- 
tenths of the graduates consider them de- 
sirable. 

Can, then, no principles of limitation and 
restriction be found, which students, graduates, 
and governing boards will unite in thinking 
reasonable ? Most certainly there are some 
such fundamental conditions which may be im- 
posed. The first business of every man, 
whether in a bank, in a law office, or in a col- 
lege, is to perform his daily task : students, 
therefore, will readily accommodate themselves 
to regulations intended to bring contests out of 
the hours of college exercises, and to restrict 
the number of games played abroad. Impor- 
tant contests at a distance from home, or in a 
city not the seat of either contesting college, 
plainly lead to irregularities and to interference 
with study ; and the effects of the excitement 
thus induced extend far beyond the day of the 



142 College Btblettcs. 

contest. Experience has shown that students 
are candid enough to admit the necessity of 
reducing the geographical compass of their 
sports. The first principle of regulation is to 
subordinate athletics to study. It would aid 
the enforcement of this principle if games were 
allowed only on the college grounds. 

The second principle is that every organiza- 
tion of every kind which goes before the public 
as emanating from a college, or bearing its 
name, shall present none but genuine represent- 
atives of that college, and shall do nothing 
discreditable to alma mater. The principle ap- 
plies as much to theatrical and musical per- 
formances as to athletic contests. No man 
ought to be permitted to sing, to act, or to 
contest as a member of a college organization, if 
he be under college censure, or if he be a stu- 
dent only for a few months, or if he come only 
to pursue his favorite amusement. The present 
rules of the most careful colleges exclude spe- 
cial students in their first year, and limit the 
continuance on a university team to four years. 
It is equally important to keep alive the feeling 
that the members of teams compete for the 
fame of their college, and not for any pecuniary 
gain to themselves : for this reason, students 
who have enjoyed a money profit from the 
practice of their sport must be excluded rigor- 



Iprfncfplea of IReaulatlon* 143 



ously, although their regular standing as mem- 
bers of the college may be unquestioned. 
Here, again, so soon as students clearly per- 
ceive how and why professionalism degrades 
amateur sport, they heartily join in an attempt 
to keep out professionals. 

A third principle is that of publicity. No 
organization which, from its connection with a 
college, secures subscriptions from undergrad- 
uates and graduates, enjoys the use of college 
grounds or buildings, or appears before the 
public under the college name, has any right to 
conceal its accounts, or to refuse to the authori- 
ties of the college a knowledge of its methods, 
its system of training, and the men who are to 
make up its teams. The system of irresponsi- 
ble handling of large funds, of irresponsible 
selection of players, and of irresponsible 
diplomacy with other colleges is one which ac- 
knowledges only half the principle of freedom. 
A boy chooses his college, but abides by its 
discipline. A student chooses or accepts his 
studies ; but, in every college, his instructors 
require him to satisfy them that he pursues the 
work that he has undertaken. College athletic 
sports, as now conducted, are no longer private 
enterprises ; much more than college societies 
they affect the good name and the efficiency of 
individual colleges and of college education, 



144 College Btblettcs. 



and the college authorities have a right to 
know what goes on. 

In applying the three principles above spec- 
ified — the subordination of athletics, exclu- 
sion of men not representative, and publicity — 
the co-operation of students is essential, and is 
freely given. There is no want of good will, 
but a " plentiful lack " of good business habits. 
Somewhere in the organization of a university 
there must therefore be authority to require 
the observance of rules laid down under the 
three principles enunciated ; and the judicious 
application of such rules requires the expen- 
diture of a great deal of time. The detail will 
inevitably fall into confusion if not carefully 
looked after, for the simple reason that coL 
lege students are boyish, thoughtless, and 
slack, and that college generations change 
quickly. The time necessary for supervision 
is well spent, if it brings young men to see the 
reasons for a punctilious standard in the selec- 
tion and management of athletic teams. Pen- 
alties may be simple, and yet effective. To de- 
prive a man of the privilege of taking part in 
athletic contests is often a memorable punish- 
ment to him and to his fellows ; to deprive an 
organization of the use of grounds or buildings, 
for sufficient cause, will prevent the recurrence 
of the cause. Within the limitations suggested, 



Joint Htblctic Committees. ^45 



students should be left to control their own 
affairs and to make their own arrangements, 
without being troubled by successive petty en- 
actments. Regulations should be few; con- 
ferences should be many. 

In whom should the authority over athletic 
sports primarily be vested? The Harvard 
Committee on the Regulation of Athletic 
Sports is composed of nine members: three 
members of the Faculty and three graduates, 
all six appointed for a year by the Corporation 
and confirmed by the Overseers ; and three un- 
dergraduates, chosen by representatives of ath- 
letic organizations. In practice the six ap- 
pointed members serve for a term of years. 
The action of this Committee, or rather Com- 
mission, may be subsequently reversed by the 
governing boards, but during the six years of its 
existence it has never been so reviewed. Ihe 
combination has proved singularly harmonious ; 
and the undergraduate members habitually 
show a spirit of open-mindedness and conserv- 
atism which reflects the best sentiment of the 
college A similar system has been adopted at 
Dartmouth, and suggested in other colleges. 

This is not a perfect system, but it is sugges- 
tive of methods which ought to prevail every- 
where. Athletic sports and competitions and 
intercollegiate contests are an established part 



zo 



14^ College Btbletlcs, 

of the life of American colleges. The evils in- 
cident to them can best be met by judicious 
legislation, founded on a few reasonable prin- 
ciples, and by giving to students full freedom 
within these limitations. On the other hand, 
students must recognize and observe the public 
sentiment which protests against brutality and 
unfairness, wherever shown. If, at any time, 
it appear that college sports are not gentle- 
men's sports, then will be the time for gov- 
erning bodies to choose the lesser of two evils, 
by prohibiting those intercollegiate games in 
which the bad tendencies most manifest them- 
selves. 



Ilnbey* 



ADA 

ADAMS, Henry, on the Capitol, i. 
Adams, John, as a teacher, 7. 

Algebra, in Cambridge grammar 
schools, 40, 41. 

Amateur, in athletics, 126. 

American history, study of, 94, 106. 

Americans, distrust of experts, 1-4 ; 
like Romans, 5 ; modern languages 
for, 41. 

Amherst College, physical examina- 
tions at, 137. 

Ancient history, study of, 94, 95, 105. 

Arithmetic, in Cambridge, 36, 38 ; re- 
form of, 39. 

Art, study of, 78. 

Association of Colleges in New Eng- 
land, 39, 47. 

Associations, value of educational, 9, 
20. 

Athens, history of, 80. 

Athletics in American colleges, 122- 
146 ; interest among students, 122, 
128 ; origin of, 124 ; avoidance of 
bodily injury, 124 ; complicated rules, 
125; "professionalism," 125, 135; 
amateur defined, 126 ; early sports 
in America, 127 ; effect of the civil 
war, 127 ; growth in colleges, 128 ; 
effect on exercise, 129 ; long training, 
131 ; large expenditures, 131 ; poor 
book-keeping, 133 ; pseudo-students, 
135 ; lack of responsibility, 136 ; re- 
lations of the college faculties, 137 ; 
mild regulations, 139 ; action of Har- 
vard University, 139: question of pro- 
hibition, 140 ; position of alumni, 140; 
principle of non-interference with col- 
lege exercises, 141 ; principle oibona 
Jide students, 142 ; principle of pub- 
licity, 143 ; good-will of students, 144 ; 
athletic committees, 145 ; necessity of 
reform, 146. 

Atlases, use in schools, 102, X14, 116. 



COL 

BANCROFT, George, influence on 
study of history, 92. 

Betting, on college athletics, 127, 134. 

Bibliography, guides to historical, 84. 

Bismarck, in history, 83, 

Book-keeping, in Cambridge, 39. 

Books, convenience of possessing, 84 ; 
how to use, 84-86 ; for reference, 
99-101, 117-121. See also libraries. 

Boston, Public Library built by " prac- 
tical men," 3. 

Botany, Harvard teachers' course, 62. 

Brown University, teachers' courses, 
56. 



CAMBRIDGE, college graduate 
teachers, 17 ; schools of, 25 ; 
primary schools, 30 ; reform of gram- 
mar schools, 28-48 ; Harvard courses 
for teachers, 57-63 ; selection of a 
science, 61 ; question of fees from 
teachers, 70 ; pressure on teachers to 
improve, 72. 

Canada, example in athletics, 128. 

Carlyle, his Cromwell books, 85. 

Cities, possible relations with uni- 
versities, 72, 

Civil government, teachers' courses in, 

.63- 

Civil War, influence on athletics, 127. 

Cleveland, popular physician in, 4 ; 
former school-board, 23. 

Colleges, professor of morals, i ; "edu- 
cation business," 5 ; vacations, 7 ; 
marriage of women professors, 7 ; 
pedagogics in, 8 ; training courses for 
teachers, 16 ; require trained instruct- 
ors, 17 ; appointments in, 23 ; prep- 
aration for, 29 ; interest in secondary 
instruction, 49 ; advantages of teach- 
ers' courses, 73 ; history in, 91-93 ; 



(147) 



148 



IfnDes, 



COL 
entrance requirements in history, 96 ; 
athletics in, 122-146. 

Columbia College, Jeflferson not of it, 2 ; 
influence of the faculty, 12 ; interest 
in educational meetings, 49 ; teach- 
ers' courses in, 56, 63 ; courses in 
science for teachers, 61. 

Columbian Exposition, educational ex- 
hibit slighted, 6. 

Congress, its opinion of scientists, 11. 

Cornell University, influence of the 
faculty, 12 ; exercise at, 137. 

Crusades, history of, 81. 

Curriculum of schools, teachers not 
consulted, 13, 33 ; reform in Cam- 
bridge, 35-47 ; enlargement neces- 
sary, 50. 



DARTMOUTH College, regula- 
tion of athletics, 145. 
Democracy in schools, 34. 
Departmental instruction in grammar 

schools, 20, 33. 
District schools, advantages of, 32. 
Divver, Paddy, respect for learning. 



EDUCATION. ^•^^ colleges, gram- 
mar schools, schools, teachers' 
training. 

Educators, function of, 24. 

Eliot, President, "what does he find 
to do ? " 5 ; on Cambridge grammar 
schools, 27 ; a rowing man, 127. 

England, Reformation in, 81 : Stuart 
period, 82 ; example in athletics, 
124 ; history of, 83, 89, 106, 107. 

English, study of, in Cambridge, 35, 
36, 38 ; aided by study of foreign 
languages, 42 ; reforms in Cam- 
bridge, 43 ; Harvard teachers' 
course, 60. 

European history, study of, 80-83, 
94, 95- . 

Examinations of grammar school 
pupils abohshed, 37 ; of teachers by 
State, 19. 

Exercise. See athletics. 



FLORENCE, government in, 49. 
Football, compared with teach- 
ing, 9 ; rules in, 124. See also ath- 
letics. 
France, importance in history, 82 ; 

topical work on, 87. 
Freeman, E. A., "Outlines," 76, 
French, in grammar schools, 41. 



HIS 

GARFIELD, J. A., began as a 
teacher, 7. 

General history, difficulty of, 76, 106 ; 
time devoted to, 96, 98. 

Geography, study in Cambridge, 36, 
43 ; Harvard teachers' course in, 
62, 66, 68 ; historical in schools, 
lOI, 116. 

Geometry, study in Cambridge, 40 ; 
Harvard teachers' course, 59, 66, 
68. 

German, in grammar schools, 41. 

Germany, boys in, compared with 
Americans, 42 ; ancient Germans, 
80; unification of, 82; historical 
methods in, 106. 

Grammar schools, teachers litde con- 
sulted, 12 ; place in education, 15 ; 
college graduates as teachers, 17 ; 
departmental instruction, 20, 34 ; 
reform in, 22-48 ; interest of super- 
intendents, 23 ; in Cambridge, 26- 
48 ; function of, 28, 29 ; question of 
separation of pupils, 29 ; length of 
the course, 29-31, "skipping" in, 
30-32 ; two grades in a room, 
32 ; democracy in, 34 ; old Cam- 
bridge curriculum, 35-37; four and 
six years course, 37 ; study of lan- 
guage, 38, 41 ; new subjects, 38-46 ; 
arithmetic, 39; geometry, 40; alge- 
bra, 41 ; reading, 43 ; geography, 
43 ; physics, 44. 

Greece, importance of history, 80, 

Guicciardirii, dulness of, 77. 



HARVARD University, experi- 
ence of Professor B., 1 ; the 
president of, 3 ; on weather-proph- 
ets, 10 ; faculty and overseers, 12 ; 
aids to Cambridge grammar schools, 
46 ; teachers' courses, 57-63 ; in- 
structors in Radcliffe College, 69 ; 
Carlyle's Cromwell books, 85 ; old 
methods in history, 91 ; first boat- 
race with Yale. 127 ; football no 
play, 131 ; athletic expenditures, 
132 ; effect of Yale games, 134 ; 
graduate management of athletics, 
138 ; faculty restrictions on athletics, 
139 ; committee on athletics, 145. 

High schools, teachers' courses, 71. 

History, teachers' courses in, 63, 66 ; 
how to study, 75-90 ; reading of 
75 ; teaching of, 75 ; study cf, 76 ; 
must choose a definite subject, 76 ; 
criteria of selections, 77 ; avoid 
wars, 78; study people who thought ; 
Greek and Roman, 80; Crusades, 



ITnDes, 



149 



ITA 

81 ; Renaissance, 81 ; Reformation, 
81 ; France, 82 ; Stuart period, 82 ; 
French Revolution, 8e ; unification of 
Germany, 82 ; brief backs, 83 ; sug- 
gestive books, 83 ; marginal notes, 
84 ; written outline, 85 ; co-operative 
methods, 86; note-taking, 87; use 
of sources, 89 ; summary, 90 ; teach- 
ing in secondary schools, 91, 121 ; 
oil methods, 91 ; improvements, 92 ; 
time spent, 93, 94, 105 ; distribution 
of time, 94, 95, 105; aims, 95, 107; 
preparation for college, 97 ; lecture 
systems, 97, no ; recitation, 97, 109 ; 
text -books, 97, 104, 108; topical 
method, 98, 111-114; libraries, 99, 
104, 114 ; use of books of reference, 
100,112; home reading, 100, 115; 
written exercises, loi, in ; histori- 
cal geography, loi, 116; maps, 102, 
114, 116; practical effect, 103, 116 ; 
unsatisfactory condition, 104 ; an- 
cient, mediaeval, and modern, 105 ; 
centrifugal and centripetal methods, 
ic6 ; value of facts, 107 ; bibliog- 
raphy, 117-121. 



ITALY, Renaissance in, 81 
cation of, 82. 



unifi- 



T EFFERSON, Thomas, opinions 
J on architecture, 21. 
Johns Hopkins University, impetus to 
education, 16. 



KOSSUTH, criticism of, in New 
England, i. 



LANGUAGES, study in grammar 
schools, 41-43. 

Latin in grammar schools, 41. 

Latrobe, architect of the Capitol, 2. 

Lectures in schools, 97, no. 

Legal profession, status of, 4 ; bar ex- 
aminations, 12, 19. 

Leland Stanford, Jr., University 
teachers' courses, 56. 

Library, Boston, built by non-experts, 
3 ; school libraries, 99, 104. 

Literature. See English. 



MANN, Horace, on normal 
schools, 51. 
Map-drawing, in schools, 102, 116. 
Maps, use in schools, 102, 116. 



ROM 

Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 

courses for teachers, 56, 61. 
Mediaeval history, interest of, 81 ; time 

spent in, 95, 105. 
Medicine, status of profession, 4 ; 

choice of medical professions, 22. 
Memorizing, log. 
Methods, cant about, 15. 
Military history, not interesting, 78. 
Ministry, status of profession, 3. 
Modern history, study of, 82, 94. 
Modern languages, in grammar 

schools, 41-43. 



NATIONAL Educational Associa- 
tion, 9. 
Normal traming, recent, 8 ; improve- 
ment in, 16 ; established in Massa- 
chusetts, 51 ; advantages of teachers' 
courses, 73. 
Note-taking, system of, 87-89; in 
schools, no. 



o 



LD South lectures, no. 
Outlines, historical, 85. 



PAWTUCKET, teachers' courses 
in, 70. 

Pedagogy, teachers' courses in, 64. 

Physical geography. See geography. 

Physics, in Cambridge grammar 
schools, 44 ; apparatus, 45 ; Harvard 
teachers' courses, 61, 68. 

Politics, lack of experts, 2, 3. 

Presbyterian government, 13. 

Princeton College, athletics, 134 ; grad- 
uate management, 138. 

Profession, of teaching, 1-22 ; status of 
learned, 3, 4 ; characteristics, 6. 

"Professional" in athletics, 125. 

Promotion, without examinations, 37. 

Psychology, study of, 52. 

Public opinion, interest in education, 
20, 24, 50. 

Public schools, status of teachers in, 
n ; interest of colleges in, 49. See 
also grammar schools, teachers. 



RADCLIFFE College, instructors' 
fees in, 69. 
Reading, reform in schools, 43, 60 ; 

historical, 100, 115. 
Reformation, historical importance, 81, 
Renaissance, historical importance, 81. 
Research, in schools, in. 
Rome, Romans did not value learning, 



ISO 



ITnOej. 



ROT 

5 ; overthrow, 80 ; historical impor- 
tance, 81. 
Rotation in office, 2, 

SCHOOL-BOARDS, advantage of, 
19 ; out of teachers' hands, 22 ; 

power of, 23 ; relations to teachers' 

courses, 70, 72. 
Sciences, in grammar schools, 44 ; in 

schools, 61 ; for teachers, 61. 
Secondary schools, qualifications for 

teachers, 17 ; history in, gi-121. 
"Skippers," in Cambridge, 31, 32. 
Sources, use in studying history, 89. 
Spanish, little use for, 41. 
Spelling, teaching of, 43. 
Summer schools for teachers, 52. 
Superintendents, should trust teachers 

more, 13 ; power of, 23. 
Switzerland, historical importance, 80. 

TEACHERS, profession of, 1-21 ; 
low popular estimate, 4, 11 ; often 
a makeshift, 6 ; lack of opportunities, 
7 ; associations, 8, 20, 50 ; no State 
examuiations, 12, 19 ; too much su- 
pervised, 13 ; conservative, 14; cant, 
15 ; need of training, 11, 16, 50 ; well- 
off, 17 ; departmental instruction, 
20 ; Teachers' Council, 20 ; lack of 
influence, 22, 23, 25 ; interest in re- 
forms, 27 ; two grades at once, 32 ; of 
languages, 42 ; of physics, 46 ; train- 
ing of, 46 , institutes, 52 ; meetings, 
52 ; study of psychology, 52. 

Text-books, historical, for private 
study, 83 ; for schools, 97, io8, no. 

Thornton, Dr. William, i. 

Topical method in history, 86, 87, 95, 
98-100, 111-114. 

Tours, battle of, 79. 



YAL 

Training of pupils, 50 ; of teachers by 
colleges, 16, 49-74 ; lack of, 104. 

UNITED States. See Ameri- 
can. 

University. See colleges. 

University of Minnesota, 56. 

University of Pennsylvania, 56, 63. 

University extension, as a lecture 
bureau, 53 ; not university work, 54 ; 
adapted for teachers, 55 ; substitute 
for, 49-74. 

University participation, in general, 
49-74 ; reason for, 55 ; objects and 
method, 56 ; should be specific, 57 ; 
time, 58 ; subjects, 58 ; geometry, 
59 ; English, 59 ; sciences, 61 ; phy- 
sics, 61 ; geography, 62 : botany, 
62 ; history, 63 ; high-school studies, 
64 ; pedagogy, 64 ; methods, 64 ; 
place, 65 ; instructors, 65 ; illus- 
trations, 66 ; connection with class- 
rooms, 68 ; work of the teachers, 
68 ; expense, 69 ; duty of the uni- 
versities, 71 ; how far applicable, 71 ; 
duty of school boards, 72 ; advan- 
tages, 73. 

WARS, not interesting, 78. 
Washington, George, as a 
model, II. 
Waterloo, battle of, 79. 
Workingmen's School, 33. 
Writ;en exercises, in history, loi. 

YALE University, influence of 
the faculty, 12 ; first boat-race 
with Harvard, 127 ; athletic expen- 
ditures, 132 ; efifect of Harvard 
games, 134 ; regulation of athletics, 
137, 138. 



PRACTICAL ESSAYS 
ON AMERICAN GOVERNMENT. 

By Albert Bushnell Hart, Ph.D., of Harvard University, 
Author of " Epoch Maps," " Introduction to the Study of 
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Contejits : The Speaker as Premier — The Exercise of the Suf- 
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Diplomacy — The Colonial Town Meeting — The Colonial Shire — 
The Rise of American Cities — The Biography of a River and Har- 
bor Bill— The Public Land Policy of the United States— Why the 
South was Defeated in the Civil War — Index. 

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judgment, and threshed the grain out of them to the very best of 
his ability. There is no eye-service in it — no paragraph written to 
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essays are all remarkable for the foresight and intuition they 
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LOKGM&NS, GREEN, & CO., 15 East Sixteentli Street, New York. 



LONGMANS, GREEN, &- CO:S PUBLICATIONS. 

A GENERAL VIEW OF THE POLITICAL 
HISTORY OF EUROPE. 

By Ernest Lavisse, Professor at the Sorbonne. Translated, with the 
Author's sanction, by Charles Gross, Ph.D., Instructor in History, 
Harvard University. i2mo, 200 pages. With Index. $1.25. 

The title of Professor Lavisse's work is Vue Generale de I'Histoire Politique 
de V Europe. (Third edition. Paris : Armand Colin & Co. 1890.) While giv- 
ing essential facts of universal history, he aims, above all, to describe the for- 
mation and pohtical development of the states of Europe, and to indicate the 
historical causes of their present condition and mutual relations. In other 
words, he shows how the existing political divisions of Europe, with their 
peculiar tendencies, were created. To accomplish this, it was necessary to 
begin with the history of Greece and Rome, which played an important part 
in Europe long after their death ; then, to show the potent influence of the 
Holy Roman Empire and of the Papacy in the Middle Ages ; next, to point out 
how these two great ideal powers were superseded by modern Europe, an 
organic entity composed of various states, new and old, most of which were 
dominated by the monarchical idea ; and, finally, how, in the nineteenth cen- 
tury, the new principle of nationality and the power of the people have sup- 
planted the old monarchical element. The abiUty of Professor Lavisse to com- 
press the essence of a great event or sequence of events into a few comprehen- 
sive and expressive sentences, has enabled him to accomphsh his difficult task 
with signal success. At any rate, this is the opinion of the Translator, and 
hence he believes that the work will prove useful to general readers, as well as 
to college students, in America and England. 

*** A prospectus with specimen pages sent on application. 

" This is an admirable little book, and Dr. Gross, in selecting and translat- 
ing it, has rendered good service to historical education. M. Lavisse, who is 
known by his recent work on the history of Prussia, brings to the difficult task 
here achieved accurate knowledge combined with a fine sense of proportion 
and value, and much skill in tracing the movements of great currents under 
the criscross play of local and momentary surface commotion. He writes for 
the most part quite simply and clearly, with a true conversational ease, so that 
the reader comes to think the writing of philosophical history the easiest thing 
in the world ; yet if any one will try to express in no more pages than suffice 
for M. Lavisse the nature of the Roman Empire, or the rise of Christianity, or 
the growth of Prussian power of French nationality, he may not be readily 
satisfied with the result. With all its ease the style has a nervous suggestive- 
ness provocative of thought, so that the book is one of those that repay a 
second reading better than the first, and a third better than the second. If 
Professor Lavisse lectures thus, his hearers must be accounted fortunate. . . 
The translation adheres closely to the original, which it presents in style as well 
as in meaning." — T/ie Nation, New York. 

*^* For other books dealing with Political History, see Longmans, Green, 6* 
Co*s Catalogue of Educational Works. 



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LONGMANS, GREEN, &= CO: S PUBLICATIONS. 



EPOCHS OF AMERICAN HISTORY. 

MESSRS. LONGMANS, GREEN, & CO. have the pleasure to state 
that they are now publishing a short series of books treating of the history 
of America, under the general title Epochs of American History, The 
series is under the editorship of Dr. Albert Bushnell Hart, Assistant 
Professor of History in Harvard College, who has also prepared all the maps 
for the several volumes. Each volume contains about 300 pages, similar in 
size and style to the page of the volumes in Messrs. Longmans' series, 
' Epochs of Modern History,' with full marginal analysis, working bibliogra- 
phies, maps, and index. The volumes are issued separately, and each is 
complete in itself. The volumes now ready provide a continuous history 
of the United States from the foundation of the Colonies to the present 
time, suited to and intended for class use as well as for general reading and 
reference. 

*^ The volumes of this series already issued have been adopted for use as text' 
books in nearly all the leading Colleges and in many Normal Schools a?id other 
institutions. A prospectus , showing Contents and scope of each volume, specimen 
pages, etc. , will be sent on application to the Publishers. 



I. THE COLONIES, 1492-1750. 

By Reuben Gold Thwaites, Secretary of the State Historical Society of 
Wisconsin; author of " Historic Waterways," etc. With four colored 
maps. pp. xviii.-30i. Cloth. $1.25. 

CORNELL UNIVERSITY. 

" I beg leave to acknowledge your courtesy in sending me a copy of the first 
volume in the series of ' Epochs of American History,' which I have read with 
great interest and satisfaction. I am pleased, as everyone must be, with the 
mechanical execution of the book, with the maps, and with the fresh and valua- 
ble 'Suggestions' and 'References.' .... The work itself appears to 
me to be quite remarkable for its comprehensiveness, and it presents a vast 
array of subjects in a way that is admirably fair, clear and orderly." — Professor 
Moses Coit Tyler, Ithaca, N. Y. 

Vi^ILLIAMS COLLEGE. 

•' It is just the book needed for college students, not too brief to be uninter- 
esting, admirable in its plan, and well furnished with references to accessible 
authorities."— Professor Richard A. Rice, Williamstown, Mass. 

VASSAR COLLEGE. 

" Perhaps the best recommendation of ' Thwaites' American Colonies ' is 
the fact that the day after it was received I ordered copies for class-room use. 
The book is admirable." — Professor Lucy M. Salmon, Poughkeepsie, N. Y. 

" All that could be desired. This volume is more like a fair treatment of the 
whole subject of the colonies than any work of the sort yet produced.'' 

— The Critic. 

" The subject is virtually a fresh one as approached by Mr. Thwaites. It is 
a pleasure to call especial attention to some most helpful bibliographical notes 
provided at the head of each chapter.''— 77^^ Nation. 



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EPOCHS OF AMERICAN HISTORY. 

II. FORMATION OF THE UNION, 1750-1829. 

By Albert Bushnell Hart, Ph.D. Assistant Professor of History in 
Harvard University, Member of the Massachusetts Historical Society, 
Author of ** Introduction to the Study of Federal Government," 
"Epoch Maps," etc. With five colored maps. pp. XX.-278. Cloth. 
$1.25. 

The second volume of the Epochs of American History aims to follow 
out the principles laid down for "The Colonies," — the study of causes 
rather than of events, the development of the American nation out of scattered 
and inharmonious colonies. The throwing off of English control, the growth 
out of narrow political conditions, the struggle against foreign domination, and 
the extension of popular government, are all parts of the uninterrupted process 
of the Formation of the Union. 

LELAND STANFORD JR. UNIVERSITY. 

" The large and sweeping treatment of the subject, which shows the true re- 
lations of the events preceding and following the revolution, to the revolution 
itself, is a real addition to the literature of the subject ; while the bibliography 
prefixed to each chapter, adds incalculably to the value of the work." — MARY 
Sheldon Barnes, Palo Alto, Cal. 

" It is a careful and conscientious study of the period and its events, and 
should find a place among the text-books of our pubhc schools." 

— Boston Transcript. 

" Professor Hart has compressed a vast deal of information into his volume, 
and makes many things most clear and striking. His maps, showing the terri- 
torial growth of the United States, are extremely interesting." 

— ATew York Times. 

" . . The causes of the Revolution are clearly and cleverly condensed into 
a few pages. . . The maps in the work are singularly useful even to adults. 
There are five of these, which are alone worth the price of the volume." 

— Magazine of Americaii History. 

"The formation period of our nation is treated with much care and with 
great precision. Each chapter is prefaced with copious references to authori- 
ties, which are valuable to the student who desires to pursue his reading more 
extensively. There are five valuable maps showing the growth of our country 
by successive stages and repeated acquisition of territory." 

— Boston Advertiser. 

" Dr. Hart is not only a master of the art of condensation, . . . he is 
what is even of greater importance, an interpreter of history. He perceives 
the logic of historic events ; hence, in his condensation, he does not neglect 
proportion, and more than once he gives the student valuable clues to the 
solution of historical problems." — Atlantic Monthly. 

"A valuable volume of a valuable series. The author has written with a 
full knowledge of his subject, and we have little to say except in praise." 

— English Historical Revieiv. 



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LOh-GMAMS, GREEN, &- CO:S PUBLTCATIOiVS. 



EPOCHS OF AMERICAN HISTORY. 



III. DIVISION AND RE-UNION, 1829-1889. 

By WooDROW Wilson, PhD, LL.D., Professor of Jurisprudence in 

Princeton College ; Author of ''Congressional Government," "The 

State— Elements of Historical and Practical Politics," etc., etc. Wiih 

five colored Ma[^s. 346 pag-s. Cloth, $1.25. 

" We regret that we have not space for more quotations from this uncom 
monly strong, impartial, interesting book. Giving only enough facts to 
elucidate the matter discussed, it omits no important questions. It furnishes 
the reader clear-cut views of the right and the wrong of them all. It gives ad- 
mirable pen-portraits of the great personages of the period with as much free- 
dom from bias, and as much pains to be just, as if the author were delineating 
Pericles, or Alcibiades, Sulla, or Caesar. Dr. Wilson has earned the gratitude of 
seekers after truth by his masterly production." — A^. C. University Magazine. 

" This admirable little volume is one of the few books which nearly meet our 
ideal of history. It is causal history in the truest sense, tracing the workings of 
latent influences and far-reaching conditions of their outcome in striking fact, 
yet the whole current of events is kept in view, and the great personalities of 
the time, the nerve-centers of history, live intensely and in due proportion in 
these pages. We do not know the equal of this book for a brief and trust- 
worthy, and, at the same time, a brilliantly written and sufficient history of these 
sixty years. We heartily commend it, not only for general reading, but as an 
admirable text-book." — Post- Graduate and Wooster Quarterly. 

" Considered as a general history of the United States from 1829 to 1889, 
his book is marked by excellent sense of proportion, extensive knowledge, im- 
partiality of judgment, unusual power of summarizing, and an acute political 
sense. Few writers can more vividly set forth the views of parties." 

— Atlantic Monthly. 

" Students of United States history may thank Mr. Wilson for an extreme- 
ly clear and careful rendering of a period very difficult to handle . . . they 
will find themselves materially aided in easy comprehension of the political 
situation of the country by the excellent maps." — N. Y. Times. 

" Professor Wilson writes in a clear and forcible style. . . . The bibli- 
ographical references at the head of each chapter are both well selected and 
well arranged, and add greatly to the value of the work, which appears to be 
especially designed for use in instruction in colleges and preparatory schools." 

— Vale Review. 

" It is written in a style admirably clear, vigorous, and attractive, a thorough 
grasp of the subject is shown, and the development of the theme is lucid and 
orderly, while the tone is judicial and fair, and the deductions sensible and 
dispassionate— so far as we can see. ... It would be difficult to construct 
a better manual of the subject than this, and it adds greatly to the value of this 
useful series." — Hartford Courant. 

". . . One of the most valuable historical works that has appeared in 
many years. The delicate period of our country's history, with which this 
work is largely taken up, is treated by the author with an irapartiaUty that is 
almost unique." — Columbia Law Times. 



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LONGMANS, GREEN, &- CO.'S PUBLICATIONS, 

ENGLISH HISTORY FOR AMERICANS. 

By Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Author of "Young Folks' His- 
tory of the United States," etc., and Edward Channing, Assistant 
Professor of History in Harvard University. With 77 Illustrations, 6 
Colored Maps, Bibliography, a Chronological Table of Contents, and 
Index. i2mo. Pp. xxxii-334. Teachers' price, f 1.20. 

The name "English History for Americans," which suggests the key-note of 
this book, is based on the simple fact that it is not the practice of American 
readers, old or young, to give to English history more than a limited portion of 
their hours of study. ... It seems clear that such readers will use their 
time to the best advantage if they devote it mainly to those events in English 
annals which have had the most direct influence on the history and institutions 
of their own land. . . . The authors of this book have therefore boldly 
ventured to modify in their narrative the accustomed scale of proportion ; while 
it has been their wish, in the treatment of every detail, to accept the best re- 
sult of modern English investigation, and especially to avoid all unfair or 
one-sided judgments. . . . Extracts from Author'' s Preface. 

DR. W. T. HARRIS, U. S. COMMISSIONER OF EDUCATION. 

•' I take great pleasure in acknowledging the receipt of the book, and be» 
lieve it to be the best introduction to English history hitherto made for the use 
of schools. It is just what is needed in the school and in the family. It is the 
first history of England that I have seen which gives proper attention to socio- 
logy and the evolution of political ideas, without neglecting what is picturesque 
and interesting to the popular taste. The device of placing the four historical 
maps at the beginning and end deserves special mention for its convenience. 
Allow me to congratulate you on the publication of so excellent a text-book." 

ROXBURY LATIN SCHOOL. 

". . . The most noticeable and commendable feature in the book seems 
to be its Unity. ... I felt the same reluctance to lay the volume down 
. . . that one experiences in reading a great play or a well-constructed 
novel. Several things besides the unity conspire thus seductively to lead the 
reader on. The page is open and attractive, the chapters are short, the type 
is large and clear, the pictures are well chosen and significant, a surprising 
number of anecdotes told in a crisp and masterful manner throw valuable side- 
lights on the main narrative ; the philosophy of history is undeniably there, but 
sugar-coated, and the graceful style would do credit to a Macaulay. I shall 
immediately recommend it for use in our school." — Dr. D. O. S. Lowell, 

LAWRENCEVILLE SCHOOL. 

'' In answer to your note of February 23d I beg to say that we have intro- 
duced your Higginson's English History into our graduating class and are 
much pleased with it. Therefore whatever endorsement I, as a member of the 
Committee of Ten, could give the book has already been given by my action 
in placing it in our classes." — James C. Mackenzie, Lawrenceville, N. J. 

ANN ARBOR HIGH SCHOOL. 

" It seems to me the book will do for English history in this country what 
the 'Young Folks' History of the United States ' has done for the history of our 
own country — and I consider this high praise." 

— T. G. Pattengill, Ann Arbor, Mich. 



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